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Congratulations
Dr. Mulatu Lemma
Professor/ Researcher
Dr. Mulatu Lemma has taught mathematics
at SSU for 28 years.
Dr. Mulatu Lemma selected as Top Professor of the Year by IAOTP (August 22, 2023).
Professor Lemma has taught mathematics for more than 30 years, including the last 28 at SSU. He is a recipient of multiple awards for his accomplishments throughout his career. In 2020, he was honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). The award recognizes those who have made significant contributions to mentoring and thereby support the future productivity of the U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce.
“My philosophy of teaching mathematics is to teach the students you have and not the students you wish you had,” said Lemma. “As a professor you have to meet the students where they are and through teaching and mentoring elevate their level of understanding and appreciation for mathematics.”
Originally from Ethiopia, Professor Lemma earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science in Mathematics from Addis Ababa University. He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Kent State University in 1994 and has published more than 200 research papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Tatiana A. Tagirova – Daley
Assistant Professor, Language, Literature & Communication
Tatiana A. Tagirova-Daley grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia and has lived and studied in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Puerto Rico. She obtained her Ph.D. in Caribbean Literature and Linguistics at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. She is the recipient of the Joan Fayer Award given in recognition of the highest academic achievements in all the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy Degree. Among some of her scholarly publications are those on Claude McKay, Frantz Fanon, Derek Walcott, Jacques Roumain, Ralph de Boissière, Rosario Ferré, and Patrick Chamoiseau. She is the co-editor of “Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Literature and Culture” (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) and the author of “Claude Mckay’s Liberating Narrative:Russian and Anglophone Caribbean Literary Connections” (Peter Lang, 2012). Her areas of expertise are Russian literature, Caribbean literature, American Literature, World Literature, Comparative Literature, Young Adult Literature, Bible as Literature, and Composition.
Jont Allen
Allen graduated from the Univ of IL in 1966, and then did an MS (1968) and PHD (1970) at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA. He then went to Bell Labs, where he enjoyed a 32 year AT&T Bell Labs career. At AT&T Allen specialized in nonlinear cochlear modeling, auditory and cochlear speech processing, and speech perception.
In 1982-1987 Allen had primary responsibility with the development of the first commercial multi-band wide-band dynamic range compression (WDRC) hearing aid, later sold as the ReSound hearing aid. During this 5 years he was working closely with clinical audiologists and speech and hearing scientists, and with several hearing aid manufactures (Starkey, Phonak, Etymotic), who subsequently funded Allen’s work.
In Aug. 2003 he join the ECE faculty as a Professor, University of IL, Urbana, where he teaches and works with his students on the theory and practice of human speech recognition, for both normal and hearing impaired hearing. From 2005-present Allen has also worked on reading disabilities in young children, in collaboration with Prof. Cynthia Johnson of the UIUC Speech and Hearing Science Department.
He teaches courses in mathematical physics (ECE493), Concepts in Engineering Math (ECE 298JA), Speech processing (ECE537), analog (ECE210) and digital signal processing (ECE310), and Audio Engineering & transducer design (ECE403). The details may be found at http:\\auditorymodels.org.
Since the early 1990’s, Allen has been a visiting scientist in the Departments of Otolaryngology of Columbia University, City university of New York, and University of Calgary, and was an Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco. He has been very active in IEEE and the ASA, running both major conferences and small workshops. Allen has more than 20 US patents on hearing aids, signal processing and middle ear measurement diagnostics.