New professors arrive at the U of I

More than 50 new faculty members begin in the College of LAS

From left: Cleo O’Brien-Udry, Angela Diaz, and Yuchen Zhou (photos provided).

More than 50 new tenure-track faculty members arrived in the College of LAS this fall, in departments from history to political science, statistics, Asian American studies, biochemistry, sociology, and many more. Some come with faculty experience from other universities and institutions, and others are taking their first tenure-track position.

Read on for profiles of a few of them along with a complete list of the campus newcomers.

Angela Diaz, Department of History

Angela Diaz joined the University of Illinois this fall semester from Utah State University, where she studied Civil War-era Southern history. Originally from Texas, Diaz’s family has roots in the South and she’s felt drawn to Civil War history since she was a young child.

“Since my childhood I was really interested in Southern history. There was this documentary that came out in the 1990s called “The Civil War” by Ken Burns,” Diaz said. “I think those things started me down this road.”

Diaz discovered a passion for teaching as well as history itself during her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina. She recalls the magnetic energy of professor Peter Carmichael and how he inspired her to attend graduate school at the University of Florida and become a history professor.

Now she wants to bring a similar energy of excitement and curiosity to her classrooms as she teaches courses on Civil War reconstruction and the history of the U.S. and Latin America. Diaz looks forward to creating connections with new colleagues and students on campus and embracing the Illini spirit.

Aside from teaching, Diaz looks forward to utilizing the libraries and research support on campus to help her write a second book. After publishing her first book, “A Continuous State of War: Empire Building and Race Making in the Civil War-Era Gulf South” (Georgia Press), she is excited to begin research for her next one that will focus on Southern history closer to the Mason-Dixon line.

Cleo O’Brien-Udry, Department of Political Science

Cleo O’Brien-Udry joined the Department of Political Science this fall and looks forward to teaching the politics of international development and the politics of climate change and developing nations.

She taught in Kosovo for the Peace Corps for two years before going to graduate school at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and then working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She said that her time in the Peace Corps shaped the trajectory of her goals both professionally and personally.

While in the Peace Corps she further developed her individual identity and began to see herself as possibly a professor. Through what she described as a whimsical teaching style, she bridged connections to students in Kosovo who could not speak any English.

“Coming into the classroom when you’re teaching in a language that is not your own, enthusiasm is one way to welcome students in without making the fact that you don’t speak the same language isolating,” O’Brien-Udry said.

O’Brien-Udry plans to apply this same kind of energy to her students, research, and learning about her new home. Along with preparing course material she has enjoyed trying new cafes and thrift stores and watching students fill up campus with life and school spirit.

“I love learning. (Being a professor) is not the easiest career path in terms of finding jobs, but it's an absolute joy that I get to think of things and explore truths in the world and try to explain those truths to other people,” O’Brien-Udry said. “I get to talk to students who are also interested in learning things about the world and help them figure out how to make their way through their passions and their goals in life—it’s a really special career.”

Yuchen Zhou, Department of Statistics

An immigration processing delay may have caused Yuchen Zhou to miss the start of the fall semester, but it hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm to launch a new career as a professor of statistics when he arrived at the U of I at the end of September.

Zhou received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Peking University in Beijing, China. After earning his undergraduate degree he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned his PhD in statistics in 2021. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania.

Zhou studies tensor data analysis and statistical learning, among other things. His research is primarily focused on extracting low-dimensional, interpretable structures from large-scale and high-dimensional data sets. With his research, Zhou uses statistical methods that are more statistically accurate, computationally efficient, and robust across scenarios.

At the University of Illinois, he wants to expand his research and explore new areas in data science such as reinforcement learning and diffusion model theoretics, both subfields of machine learning.

Zhou says he is very excited to be a part of the university. “Many excellent statisticians in the department share similar research interests with me, providing numerous opportunities for collaboration,” said Zhou. “With the strength of the computer science and electrical and computer engineering departments, it will be easier to find interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities across campus.”

While at the university, Zhou plans to leave a broad impact within the community. “I aim to establish active collaborations in the data science hub,” said Zhou. “I am committed to fostering student development and promoting statistical education.”

Other faculty members who have started this fall include:

Joshua Agterberg, Department of Statistics

Luvell Anderson, Department of Philosophy

Victoria Austen, Department of Classics

Deepasri Baul, Department of History

Ellen Buckley, Department of Earth Science & Environmental Change

Benjamin Castle, Department of Mathematics

William Chen, Department of Mathematics

Jason Climer, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology

Drew Creal, Department of Economics

Elisha Cohen, Department of Political Science

Jonathan Dunn, Department of Linguistics