Yong Promoted to Full Professor; CS and Humanities Faculty Reappointed

The Harvey Mudd College Board of Trustees has approved the recommendation of the Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee and President Maria Klawe that Associate Professor of Mathematics Darryl H. Yong ’96 be promoted to full professor. The promotion is effective July 1, 2015.

Darryl Yong ’96

Yong began as a visiting professor at Harvey Mudd (2000–2001) while teaching at California Institute of Technology, before being hired full time in 2003. His primary research area is in mathematics education, specifically in the recruitment, training and professional development of highly skilled secondary school mathematics teachers through the Math for America Los Angeles program, for which Yong serves on the steering committee. His other research interests include asymptotic analysis, numerical analysis and applied mathematics. Yong also serves as the College’s associate dean for diversity and advises Mudders considering careers in education.

Yong received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Harvey Mudd in 1996 (along with a second major in music), a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Claremont Graduate University in 1996 and a PhD in applied mathematics from University of Washington in 2000, where he was a Huckabay Teaching Fellow.

Reappointments Effective July 1

The Board also approved the recommended reappointments of several Harvey Mudd College faculty members.

Jim Boerkoel

James Boerkoel, who directs the newly formed Human Experience & Agent Teamwork Lab, receives his first reappointment as assistant professor of computer science. The mission of the HEATlab is to create new techniques for human-robot teaming—the flexible navigation and coordination of complex, inter-related activities in shared spaces. Prior to joining Harvey Mudd in 2013, Boerkoel worked as a postdoctoral associate with the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT. He completed his PhD thesis (2012) on developing distributed approaches for constraint-based, multi-agent scheduling at the University of Michigan. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science and in mathematics (double major) from Hope College in 2005 and his master’s in computer science from University of Michigan in 2008.

Vivien Hamilton

Vivien Hamilton receives her second reappointment as assistant professor of history of science. Hired in 2011, Hamilton teaches a range of courses in the history of science, technology and medicine. She is interested in understanding how individuals from different disciplinary cultures have collaborated on scientific and technical problems. Hamilton’s current manuscript explores this question, focusing on the collaboration of physicists and doctors in the first decades following the discovery of X-rays in 1895. She received her bachelor’s degree in physics and history of science from Dalhousie University in 2003, and her master’s degree (2005) and PhD (2012) in history of science from University of Toronto, where she also taught prior to joining the faculty at Harvey Mudd.

Ben Wiedermann

Benjamin Wiedermann receives his second reappointment as assistant professor of computer science at the College. Hired in 2012 after a yearlong visiting professorship, Wiedermann’s research focuses on new ways to help more people write programs. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Boston University (2001) and PhD in computer science from University of Texas at Austin (2009).