Ping (Peggy) Gui, Robert Howell, Lisa Siraganian and Nathan Cortez were named SMU’s 2015 Ford Research Fellows during the University’s Board of Trustees meeting in May.
Four distinguished SMU professors were named 2015 Ford Research Fellows during the Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, May 7.
This year’s recipients are Nathan Cortez, Dedman School of Law; Ping (Peggy) Gui, Electrical Engineering, Lyle School of Engineering; Robert Howell, Philosophy, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences; and Lisa Siraganian, English, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
Established in 2002 through a $1 million pledge from trustee Gerald J. Ford, the fellowships help SMU retain and reward outstanding scholars. Each recipient receives a cash prize for research support during the year.
Nathan Cortez is the inaugural Adelfa Botello Callejo Endowed Professor of Law in Leadership and Latino Studies in SMU’s Dedman School of Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of health law, administrative law, and FDA law; his research focuses on emerging markets in health care and biotechnology. Cortez has become one of the world’s leading legal scholars on medical tourism and has published several articles and book chapters on its legal and ethical implications. His research also addresses mobile health technologies, how to regulate innovations that disrupt static regulatory regimes, the First Amendment constraints on FDA regulation, immigration federalism, and alternative modes of regulation. He also provides frequent commentary to the media, including the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, CNN, the Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, Wired, and Slate.com. Before joining SMU, Cortez practiced with the Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter as part of its pharmaceutical, health care and biotech practice. While at Arnold & Porter, he litigated pro bono cases with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and was a board member of the D.C. Hispanic Bar Foundation. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Ping (Peggy) Gui is an associate professor of electrical engineering in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering and a member of its Darwin Deason Institute for Cyber Security. She joined the Faculty of Lyle School of Engineering at SMU in 2004. Her research interests include analog, mixed-signal, and RF/millimeter-wave integrated circuit design for a variety of applications, including high-speed wireless and wireline communications, medical devices, automotive RADAR, circuits and systems for harsh environments, and hardware security. She has published 76 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles and since 2007 has served as the technical chair of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Solid-State Circuits Society, Dallas Chapter. A senior member of IEEE, she also serves on the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium. Her professional honors include the CERN Scientific Associate Award and an IEEE Dallas Section Outstanding Service Award. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi’an, China, and her Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Delaware.
Robert Howell is a professor of philosophy and Dedman Family Chair in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. He has published many articles on the philosophy of mind, epistemology and metaphysics and is the author of Consciousness and the Limits of Objectivity: The Case for Subjective Physicalism, published by Oxford University Press. In addition, he is co-author of two widely read books (published by Oxford University Press) that present philosophical ideas in highly readable dialogue form for undergraduate readers. An Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and member of the SMU Academy of Distinguished Teachers, Howell has also received the President’s Associates Award for Outstanding Teaching and Research and was a Maguire Center Public Scholar in 2013-14. As a public scholar, he wrote “Google Morals, Virtue and the Asymmetry of Deference,” which was the subject of a popular review in The Huffington Post. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. from Brown University. His dissertation, written under Jaegwon Kim and Ernest Sosa, addressed the topic of self knowledge and self reference.
Lisa Siraganian is an associate professor of English in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and associate director of the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute. She has written nine articles and one book, Modernism’s Other Work: The Art Object’s Political Life, published by Oxford University Press. She is currently at work on a second book, tentatively titled CorpoHumanism: Literary Theories of Corporate Personhood. Her research involves exploration of the relationships between artistic forms, personhood, and institutions. In particular, her second book examines the critical 20th-century idea of corporate personhood as it relates to aesthetics and business strategy. Siraganian received her Ph.D. in English and American literature from Johns Hopkins University and her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Williams College. She held a two-year Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellowship at Dartmouth College before joining the SMU faculty in 2005.