Professor Jing-Ke Weng: Exploring the Science Behind Chinese Medicine

He discusses the rich 5,000-year history of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), highlights the latest scientific discoveries around TCM—and shares insights into TCM’s effectiveness in treating medical conditions. Watch now.

We’re excited to announce that Jing-Ke Weng has joined the faculty at Northeastern University as a jointly appointed, tenured Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Professor of Bioengineering. In this role, he will direct the new Institute for Plant-Human Interface (IPHI)—a research center focused on plant biology and plant-human interactions that influence public health and environmental sustainability. Read more here.

Prior to joining Northeastern University, Weng served as Associate Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was a core member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University and is the recipient of a number of distinguished academic awards, including The Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award and the Purdue University Distinguished Agriculture Alumni Award.

Professor Mingzhong Wu: Pioneering the Future of Magnetic Materials 

In recognition of his accomplishments, Wu was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

We’re excited to announce that Mingzhong Wu has joined the faculty at Northeastern University as a jointly appointed, tenured Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Science. In his new role at Northeastern, Wu will continue his research into topological quantum materials, magnetic thin films, spin transport, spin torque, spin waves, and ferromagnetic resonance. Explore his research.

Prior to joining Northeastern University, Wu was a Professor in the Department of Physics, Director of the Center for Advanced Magnetics, and a College of Natural Sciences Professor Laureate at Colorado State University. He has authored more than 140 papers and four book chapters, co-edited a book on magnetic insulators, and is the Senior Editor of the Journal of Alloys and Compounds. Wu received his Ph.D. in Solid State Electronics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China) in 1999.

Professor Hai-ping Cheng: Working at the Frontlines of Nano-Scale Science

In fact, her work has been cited more than 54,000 times and she was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society because of the insights she gathered from her pioneering nanoscale simulations. Learn more.

We’re excited to announce that Hai-ping Cheng has joined the faculty at Northeastern University as a tenured Professor of Physics in the College of Science. In her new role at Northeastern, she will continue her research into the physical properties of finite-size systems (cluster, nano-crystals, molecular/nano-wires) and their interaction with bulk matter.

Prior to joining Northeastern University, Cheng was a professor in the Department of Physics, Director of the Quantum Theory Project, and Director of the Center for Molecular Magnetic Quantum Materials at the University of Florida. She received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Professor Marco Colangelo: Improving Single-Photon Detectors

In his new research published in the American Physical Society Journal, he demonstrates how the enhanced detector is a game changer for quantum information science, biomedicine, and space applications. Learn more.

We’re excited to announce that Marco Colangelo has joined the faculty at Northeastern University as an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. In his new role, Colangelo will continue his research into innovative readout techniques for SNSPDs.

Before joining Northeastern University, Colangelo was a Ph.D. student and Research Specialist in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at MIT. He received his M.Sc. in Micro and Nanotechnologies from the Polytechnic University of Turin, Grenoble Institute of Technology, and École Polytechnique Fédérale in 2017, and his B.Sc. in Engineering Physics from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2015.

Eileen McGivney: Creating Immersive Educational Experiences

In an effort to bridge the divide between cutting-edge technologies and the educators who will use them, she helped develop an evidence-based guide, An Introduction to the Metaverse for Education, which provides an overview of its components, its potential for education, and the positives and negatives of learning with XR technologies.

McGivney also shared her perspectives on how immersive tech and support better learning in this podcast from The EdTech Lab.

McGivney joins Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media and Design as a jointly appointed Assistant Professor of Art and Design and Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, where she will focus on advancing initiatives in education innovation and XR.

McGivney completed her Ph.D. in Education at Harvard in the spring of 2023, where she also served as a researcher, instructor, and teaching fellow. Her dissertation—Promoting Learning, Agency, and Motivation in STEM Classrooms with Virtual Reality Field Trips—earned her the Graduate Student Research Excellence Award from the Learning and Instruction Division of the American Educational Research Association. Previously she worked as a Research Associate at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution and as a Research Assistant at the Education Reform Initiative in Istanbul, Turkey.

Elettra Bietti: Examining Digital Platform Regulation

We’re excited to announce that Elettra Bietti has joined the faculty at Northeastern University as Assistant Professor of Law and Computer Science within the School of Law and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.

She previously served as a Joint Fellow at the Information Law Institute at New York University and the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech in New York.

Bietti holds an SJD and LLM from Harvard Law School, an LLB from University College London and a Postgraduate Diploma in IP Law and Practice from Oxford University. She is also affiliated with the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Her work has published in a number of leading legal journals, including the Texas Law Review, Pace Law Review and the Computer Law and Security Review. Prior to academia, Bietti was an antitrust and intellectual property lawyer at Allen & Overy in London and Brussels, where she handled cross-border corporate transactions and intellectual property disputes.

Read an overview of our thematic hires, as well as highlights of our incoming faculty for Impact Engines and Centers and Institutes.