Lawrence
Today magazine, Summer 2007
The Board of Trustees has approved the granting of tenure to three faculty members: Peter Blitstein, assistant professor of history; David Hall, assistant professor of chemistry; and Kurt Krebsbach ’85, associate professor of computer science. Blitstein and Hall also received promotions to the rank of associate professor.
A member of the Lawrence faculty since 2001, Blitstein is a specialist in the history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. Courses he currently is teaching include Nation and Empire in Russian History, The Modern World, Historiography, The Soviet Union, and Nationalism in Modern History.
Professor Blitstein holds the B.A. degree in political science with a Russian minor from the Johns Hopkins University and an M.A. in political science and the Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley.
Hall focuses his research on the mechanisms by which rhinovirus activation of immune cells leads to the exacerbation of asthma. After completing his Ph.D. in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he spent three years as a visiting professor at his undergraduate alma mater, Butler University, and then returned to Madison for postdoctoral research in the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry in the medical school. He joined the Lawrence chemistry faculty in 2002.
Professor Hall’s primary teaching responsibilities include courses in biochemistry and advanced biochemistry, along with contributions to the teaching of introductory and organic chemistry courses.
The first Lawrence student to graduate with B.A. degrees in both computer science and music, Krebsbach also received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Minnesota.
After a decade of research in the Automated Reasoning Group at Honeywell Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minn., he returned to Lawrence in 2002.
His research interests include artificial intelligence, automated planning, functional programming languages, multi-agent systems, and zymurgy. Among his courses are
Exploring Computer Science, Introduction to Computer Science, Data Structures, Systems Analysis and Design, Programming Languages, and Artificial Intelligence.