The Smith School Welcomes Two New Faculty Members: Allison Godwin and Shuwen Yue

The Smith School is excited to welcome two new hires to Cornell in 2023! We are pleased to announce that Allison Godwin, Ph.D. will be joining as an associate professor in January, and Shuwen Yue Ph.D. will be joining as an Assistant Professor in July! 

Allison is a leading scholar in engineering education. She is a master of discipline-based education research methods and applies her skills to interesting, important challenges for our field that span human-oriented topics (e.g., effective of advising interventions and curriculum delivery) and technical topics (e.g., data science application and innovation). Her hire brings a fresh focus on development of new pedagogical practices in the School that will prepare the engineers of tomorrow. The Smith School is excited to launch this new research area and graduate program under Allison’s leadership in discipline-based education research.

Shuwen is a leading scholar in computational methods, machine learning, and statistical mechanics. She is tackling problems at the forefront of our field leveraging her expertise to develop energy storage devices, desalinization membranes, and green solvents. Shuwen’s fresh approaches complement our existing computational research areas in the Smith School and add to our growing investments at the interface of computational science with chemical engineering. 
 

More About Allison Godwin:

Dr. Godwin is joining the Smith School from her role as an Associate Professor of Engineering Education and Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. 
Dr. Godwin is the Engineering Workforce Development Director for CISTAR, the Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. Her research focuses on how identity, among other affective factors, influences diverse students to choose engineering and persist in engineering. She also studies how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belongingness and identity development. Her research earned a National Science Foundation CAREER Award focused on characterizing latent diversity, which includes diverse attitudes, mindsets, and approaches to learning to understand engineering students’ identity development. 

Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. She was recognized in 2019 as a Clemson University College of Engineering, Computing, and Applied Sciences Outstanding Young Alumni.

Dr. Godwin currently serves as the Chair of the American Society for Engineering Education Educational Research (ASEE ERM) and Methods Division and an Assistant Editor for Chemical Engineering Education. She has won several awards for her research including the 2016 ASEE ERM Best Paper Award, 2017 the IEEE Frontiers in Education Benjamin J. Dasher Award, the 2021 Journal of Civil Engineering Education Best Technical Paper Award, and the 2022 American Educational Research Association Education in the Professions (Division I) 2021-2022 Outstanding Research Publication Award. 

In the classroom, Dr. Godwin has also been honored with awards for teaching including being invited as a participant in the 2016 National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium and being awarded the 2018 Purdue University College of Engineering Exceptional Early Career Teaching Award.
 

More About Shuwen Yue:

Dr. Yue is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, in the group of Prof. Heather J. Kulik. Her postdoctoral work focuses on the study of fluids in confinement and at interfaces with materials such as carbon nanotubes and metal-organic frameworks, as part of the DOE Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport EFRC. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical & Biological Engineering from Princeton University in September 2021, under the advisement of Prof. Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos. During her graduate studies, she worked in the DOE Center for Solutions and Interfaces to study molecular fluids such as electrolyte solutions, water, and CO2 by applying statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and machine learning techniques.
 
In her future research program, Shuwen plans to work at the interface of molecular modeling and machine learning to tackle challenges at the water-energy nexus, in particular designing electrolytes and materials for energy storage devices, water desalination membranes, and optimal industrial solvents. By understanding molecular level driving forces, her team will engineer novel electrolyte molecules and material structures to improve macroscopic properties and functionalities. Her team will combine techniques in molecular simulation at both the classical and quantum level, machine-learning, and statistical mechanics to holistically study electrochemical systems in a multi-scale modeling approach.

Dr. Yue is a committed leader and advocate for students. She served as the president of the Princeton Gradate Engineering Council where she was the liaison between the student body and the College administration. Dr. Yue has also served as the 2021 co-chair of the Gordon Research Seminar in the Chemistry and Physics of Liquids. Dr. Yue has been a strong advocate for women in science, leading activities that promote high school students to consider STEM careers and persist in the physical sciences, math, and computer science.