Faculty Advisory Board 2017-2018

In recent years ATLAS has entered a new phase of growth and evolution, including new faculty, programs, and research.  While our academic programs report to the College of Engineering and Applied Science, ATLAS also (like other Institutes) reports to the Vice Chancellor for Research. Most of all, as an Institute, ATLAS remains committed to campus-wide partnerships and interdisciplinary initiatives. As such, it is important that ATLAS engage senior members of the university: to provide guidance as ATLAS continues to develop, as well as to find creative ways to integrate relevant campus activities with ATLAS. We are delighted to have the counsel and guidance of these distinguished citizens of the university. 


photo of george deriso

George Deriso Deming Center for Entrepreneurship is an experienced executive, entrepreneur and consultant who has worked with businesses of all sizes worldwide. Prior to founding Cosmos Partners, George worked for Falcon Venture Partners, a Colorado private equity firm.


photo of michelle ellsworth

Michelle Ellsworth, Theater and Dance, makes solo performance work, performable websites, drawings, and videos. She has performed and taught at Brown University, Columbia College, Naropa University, The University of Costa Rica, and in Ireland.  Her drawings and spreadsheets have been published in CHAIN and her screen dances have been seen around Europe and throughout the U.S.  The New York Times has described Ellsworth’s solo work as “virtuosic,” and “completely winning.” 

photo of Noah Finkelstein

Noah Finkelstein, Physics conducts research in physics education. He serves as a director of the Physics Education Research (PER) group at Colorado. Finkelstein is also a Director of the national-scale Center for STEM Learning at CU-Boulder, which has become one of eight national demonstration sites for the Association of American Universities’ STEM Education Initiative. 


photo of harsha gangadharbatia

Harsha Gangadharbatla, Advertising, Public Relations, & Media Design
Gangadharbatla’s research interests lie at the intersection of technology, business and communication. He has authored (or co-authored) over 40 publications including conference proceedings. His work has appeared in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Advertising, and Creativity Research Journal, among others. In his other life, he was an electrical engineer and worked for Cognizant Technology Solutions as a programmer writing code in assembly language and COBOL on legacy systems.


photo of kristelia garcia

Kristelia Garcia, Law. In addition to teaching trademark, property, and copyright-related courses, Kristelia García serves as Director of the Content Initiative at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship. Her research is focused on the intersection of law and technology, especially comparative efficiency, access, competition, private ordering and the role and influence of technology on growth, innovation and public policy. 


photo of john gunther

John Gunther, Music
is a composer and multi-instrumentalist playing Saxophones, Clarinet, and Flute.   With a restless musical spirit, he enjoys exploring all forms of jazz from traditional to avant-garde as well as classical music, world music and experimental electronic music. His work with BLOrk has led to further collaboration with the STEM program at CU exploring informal science education through the arts.  


photo of mike hannigan

Mike Hannigan Mechanical Engineering has been teaching engineering core classes like Statics and Measurements as well as electives like Cookstove Assessment and Project Based Learned in Rural Schools.  His research interests focus on improving human and environmental health through improving air quality.  He likes to develop and apply novel measurement tools to these research interests.  In his spare time, Mike likes to play with his three boys, Galileo, Calder, and Darwin, and go for hikes with his wife.


photo of liz jessup

Liz Jessup, Computer Science.
Liz Jessup’s research concerns the development of efficient algorithms and software for matrix algebra problems. She has been actively involved in computer science education, beginning with her role as co-creator of an award-winning, NSF-funded undergraduate curriculum in high-performance scientific computing. She has also worked to promote the participation of women in computing and has carried out research into factors influencing women’s choices to study computing. 


photo of helmut müller-sievers

Helmut Müller-Sievers Center for the Humanities and the Arts
(MA in German and Latin Literature, FU Berlin 1985, Ph.D. in German and the Humanities, Stanford 1990) is Professor of German and Courtesy Professor of English. His work is concerned with the interrelations of literature, science, philosophy, and with the history of philology and interpretation.


Leysia Palen Information Science is Professor of Computer Science, and Professor and Founding Chair of the newly established Department of Information Science. In 2016, she was elected to the ACM CHI Academy.  Prof. Palen is a leader in the area of crisis informatics, an area she forged with her graduate students and colleagues at Colorado. She brings her training in human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-supported cooperative work and social computing to bear on understanding and advancing socio-technical issues of societal import. She conducts empirical research in the interpretivist tradition. 


photo of joe polman

Joseph Polman, Education is Associate Dean for Research in the School of Education and Professor of Educational Psychology & Learning Sciences. He interested in how people learn science and history through inquiry and with the support of technology, both in community-based out-of-school programs and in schools. An important goal of his research is to inform the design of learning environments that involve young people with powerful tools for democratic participation, in order to better prepare them as citizens.