Frank Buonaiuto (Earth Science)

Dr. Buonaiuto (Stony Brook University) is an Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the Department of Geography. His research is focused on nearshore processes, including wave transformation and breaking, generation of rip currents and modeling of storm surge and flooding in the coastal zone. He uses numerical modeling techniques to investigate sediment movement across inlet and the evolution of our modern barrier island system along the south shore of Long Island. As an avid surfer, Dr. Buonaiuto enjoys his field work, collecting observational evidence of wave breaking and ground truthing of his numerical models.

Ying-Chih Chen (Physics)

Dr. Y.C. Chen is Professor of Physics and currently serves as the Departmental Chair. He   received his undergraduate degree in physics from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, and obtained MA, M.Ph., and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Columbia University.  Before pursuing an academic career Dr. Chen was a scientist and research manager with Exxon Enterprises, McDonnell Douglas, and GTE Laboratories. In these capacities he participated in the development of diode lasers for the world’s first fiber-optic communication systems and optical disk drivers. At Hunter College, in addition to teaching general physics and special optics courses, Dr. Chen has been conducting research on laser physics, laser spectroscopy, nonlinear optics, and the application of lasers to biomedical imaging and sensing.  Dr. Chen has over 100 publications that cover a wide range of topics in optics and has been awarded 9 U.S. patents.

Haydee Salmun, Program Director (Earth Science)

Dr. Salmun (Johns Hopkins University) is an Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the Department of Geography.  Her interests are in the areas of environmental fluid mechanics, climate dynamics, oceanography and coastal processes. Her work concentrates on understanding and modeling processes in geophysical contexts using an interdisciplinary methodology.  She has studied turbulent mixing in stratified fluids, has investigated the coupling of the atmosphere and the land surface in global climate models, and more recently has worked on interactions between the surface and the atmosphere but with a focus on oceanic phenomena. She is currently interested in the dynamics of the Southern Ocean and the connections between that dynamic and climate, in particular in the context of the potential of future climate change, and she intends to focus on modeling studies using a comprehensive ocean model.  Dr. Salmun enjoys fluids at the movies (must see Step Into Liquid!), teaching Oceanography in Argentina (yeah, in January!), river rafting in Costa Rica (all about turbulence!), at the top of Colorado’s Longs Peak (see ‘High Altitude Oceanography’), the possibilities are endless as fluids are everywhere. 

Virginia Teller (Computer Science)

Dr. Virginia Teller is Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science.  An abiding interest in human language has fueled a research career in natural language processing, artificial intelligence and cognitive science on topics ranging from Japanese-English machine translation to a cognitive theory of human emotions.  In recent years her interests have turned to increasing the enrollment of underrepresented groups, especially women and minorities, in the computer science major.  She was the PI on the SWAMI project, which aimed to create a PhD pipeline for women and minorities in computer science at Hunter.  Since 2008 she has been a co-PI on the Quantitative Biology (QuBi) Project, which allows students majoring in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and statistics to pursue a bioinformatics concentration in their discipline.  After 20 years as a highly successful age group triathlete, Dr. Teller recently retired from triathlon competition.  However, you may still find her on summer weekends riding her beloved Serotta Fierte along 9W and River Road.

Robert Thompson (Mathematics)

Robert Thompson is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Hunter College, and a professor in the Mathematics Ph D. Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. 

Former Members

Ada Peluso (Mathematics & Statistics)

Professor Peluso was an active member of the Core Faculty Team from  the inception of the Program until August 2010. Following a sabbatical leave during the Fall Semester 2010 she will be retiring from her academic position at Hunter College.