Penn Engineering is pleased to announce the recipients of four scholarly chairs: Haim Bau, Tal Rabin, Aaron Roth, and Eric Stach.

Haim Bau has been named the Richard H. & S. L. Gabel Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Bau is a professor in the department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics. He earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and joined Penn that same year, in 1980.

Dr. Bau is the recipient of numerous awards, including Penn’s 2015 One Health Award, along with Changchun Liu (Almanac November 17, 2015), for their work with the health schools on point-of-care molecular diagnostics, a 2013 Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring, and his 1993 election as a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Dr. Bau’s research interests include nano- and micro-fluidics, with applications such as liquid and particle transportation via nanopipes, and laboratories-on-chips for disease detection at the point of care. As a member of the Nano/Bio Interface Center and the Institute for Medicine and Engineering, his interdisciplinary scholarship builds bridges between Penn Engineering, Penn Medicine, Penn Dental and Penn Vet.

The Richard H. & S. L. Gabel Professorship was established in 1991 by the family of Richard H. Gabel, ME ‘32, a world-renowned industrialist and an exceptionally active undergraduate who was class valedictorian. Mr. Gabel was founder and CEO of Superior Tube Company.

Tal Rabin has been named the Rachleff Family Professor. Dr. Rabin is a professor in the department of computer and information science. She joined Penn in 2020 after several years at IBM. She is an alumna of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she received her PhD in 1994.

Dr. Rabin is the recipient of numerous industry awards and recognitions. Most recently, in 2021 she and her advisor received one of the field’s highest honors, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 30-year STOC Test of Time Award. She is also a 2019 recipient of the RSA Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics, a 2017 ACM fellow, a 2016 member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 2015 International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) fellow, and in both 2018 and 2019 Forbes named her one of the world’s Top 50 Women In Tech.

Dr. Rabin’s research is in the area of cryptography and network security. She works on the design of efficient and provably secure cryptographic algorithms, and on secure distributed protocols and the theoretical foundations of cryptography. She also works on number theory, theory of algorithms and distributed systems. Her research has been cited over 15,000 times.

The Rachleff Family Professorship was established in 1999 by Andrew S. Rachleff, W’80, PAR’14, and Debra Rachleff, PAR’14, to support a standing faculty member who is a leader in the field of computer and information science and who has demonstrated potential to establish SEAS as preeminent among its peer institutions. Andrew Rachleff is a University Trustee and a member of Penn Engineering’s Board of Advisors.

Aaron Roth has been named the Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer & Cognitive Science. Dr. Roth is a professor in the department of computer and information science. He holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and conducted postdoctoral research at Microsoft Research before joining Penn in 2011.

Highlights of Dr. Roth’s many awards include the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2013; a Google Faculty Research Award for 2015-2016; an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 2015, and an NSF CAREER Award spanning 2012-2017. His 2019 textbook with Michael Kearns, The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design, won the American Association of American Publishers’ 2021 PROSE Award in the Computer and Information Sciences Category.

Dr. Roth’s research focuses on differential privacy, algorithmic fairness, game theory, and learning theory. He aims to embed constraints of social norms directly into the design of algorithms, using game theory to make predictions about the effects of algorithmic interventions in dynamic environments, and developing algorithmic principles that lead to rigorous statistical guarantees regarding the reliability of data.

The Henry Salvatori Professorship was established in 1977 by Henry Salvatori, who earned a BS in electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1923. Mr. Salvatori was a well-known industrialist, philanthropist, and pioneer in the oil exploration industry.

Eric Stach has been named the Robert D. Bent Professor of Engineering. Dr. Stach is a professor in the department of materials science and engineering. Before joining Penn in 2017, he held leadership positions at two national laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Brookhaven National Laboratory, was a tenured professor at Purdue University and was the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Scientific (a position he continues to hold). He is an alumnus of the University of Virginia, where he received his PhD in 1998.

Dr. Stach serves as the director of the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter. Highlights of his many awards include his 2021 election as a fellow of the Materials Research Society, his 2017 election as a fellow of the American Physical Society, his 2013 election as a fellow of the Microscopy Society of America, the ISI Highly Cited Researcher “Cross Field” award in 2018 and the Microscopy Society of America’s Burton Medal in 2009.

Dr. Stach’s research focuses on the development of advanced in situ and operando imaging and characterization techniques, which enable functional materials to be analyzed on the smallest scales while in the environments they normally work.

The Robert D. Bent Professorship was established in 1978 by a grant from the Atlantic Richfield Foundation to honor Mr. Bent, an alumnus of chemical engineering who served as a member of the Board of Advisors for the (then) College of Engineering and Applied Science.