CFSRC is pleased to announce that Dr. Zhanjie Li, Dr. Kara Peterman, and Dr. Michael Seek have all been approved as new affiliated investigators. “This addition of talent, and connection to new schools greatly expands the CFSRC and is aligned with the consortium mission.” says CFSRC Director Ben Schafer.
Dr. Zhanjie Li is an Assistant Professor at SUNY Poly in Utica, NY. He is an expert in the analysis of cold-formed steel members and was a key developer in updates to the popular finite strip software: CUFSM. Dr. Li expands the state-of-the-art analysis capabilities of the CFSRC. Focused primarily on undergraduate education, SUNY Poly provides an important additional audience for cold-formed steel education and the CFSRC.
Dr. Kara Peterman is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Northeastern University who will join the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as an Assistant Professor in 2016. As the chief experimentalist in the CFS-NEES project she brings a wealth of experimental expertise for complete cold-formed steel building systems to the CFSRC (videos of CFS-NEES testing, and blog). She also has experimental expertise across a variety of cold-formed steel applications including, most recently, building envelope evaluation and innovation. Dr. Peterman will join Prof. Arwade at UMass-Amherst providing real breadth in cold-formed steel research at their school.
Dr. Michael Seek is an Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University. He is an expert in the analysis and design of cold-formed steel systems applied in metal buildings. He brings a wealth of analytical, modeling, and design experience (see the design guide he authored) to his research on these systems. The expansion of CFSRC expertise in metal buildings is welcomed by the consortium and stands to further increase the impact of the consortium’s research.
These 3 new CFSRC investigators join 4 other affiliated investigators and 5 investigators at the three primary consortium schools giving CFSRC a growing breadth and depth in cold-formed steel research.