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Interdisciplinary Applied Science and Mathematics Ph.D. Program Appointments

The College of Science and Mathematics is pleased to announce these one-year appointments as the new Ph.D. program becomes operational.

The search for a permanent program director will begin during the new academic year.

K. T. Arasu, Ph.D., is named the Interim Director of the Interdisciplinary Applied Science and Mathematics (IASM) Ph.D. Program.

K. T. Arasu is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Wright State University. He received his Master’s degree in 1977 at Panjab University, India and Ph.D. in 1983 from Ohio State University. He has been at WSU since 1983. He also spent 2 years in Germany as a Humboldt fellow. He has published over 100 research articles and is on the editorial board of the international journal Designs, Codes and Cryptography. He has edited special issues of the journals: Discrete Mathematics, Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference and the Journal of Combinatorics, Information and System Sciences. He has also edited three books containing research articles on combinatorial designs and coding theory.

Arasu’s research has been and continues to be funded by the National Security Agency, National Science Foundation and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. His research interests lie in the general area of applied algebra, computational methods in signal designing and signal processing and cryptography and coding theory.

His honors include the Teaching Excellence Award from the College of Science and Mathematics, the Presidential Research Excellence Award from WSU, and the Trustee’s Award for Faculty Excellence. Fall 2013 Arasu was appointed as University Professor, a special rank awarded by the Board of Trustees for full professors who have made outstanding contributions beyond the confines of their own discipline. The initial appointment is for a period of five years. His hobbies include composing spiritual music and writing poems in Tamil, Hindi and English.


Dr. Jason DeibelJason Deibel, Ph.D., is named the Interim Associate Director of the Interdisciplinary Applied Science and Mathematics (IASM) Ph.D. Program.

Jason A. Deibel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Wright State University. Prior to joining the faculty at WSU in 2007, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University where he was a Director of Central Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellow. During this time, he also spent two months at the University of Leeds as a Royal Society Visiting Fellow. Jason completed his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and also holds a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from Transylvania University. His research interests include ultrafast and terahertz spectroscopy and imaging, computational electromagnetics, and the characterization of novel materials. His work has been published in over 35 refereed journals and conference proceedings. A significant number of these publications have included undergraduate co-authors.

Deibel’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Ohio Board of Regents, and the Air Force Research Laboratory as well as several private research and development companies. Jason is also committed to advancing his teaching via the implementation of active learning strategies in the classroom. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Optical Society of America, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Physical Society as well as the Council for Undergraduate Research. Since March of 2014, Jason has served as the Director of Undergraduate Research and Experiential Learning in the College of Science and Mathematics at WSU. During the development of the Interdisciplinary Applied Science and Mathematics Ph.D. program, he co-authored the full program proposal with David Miller (Math Professor Emeriti).