Use-Inspired Design

Frank Wise was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories before coming to Cornell University. Professor Wise joined the Cornell faculty in 1988 and was named an NSF Presidential Young Investigator in 1989. From 2007 to 2011, he was director of the School of Applied and Engineering Physics. Since 2017, Professor Wise has been director of the Cornell Center for Materials Research.

Juan P. Hinestroza, a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and a PMP®, is the Rebecca Q. Morgan ’60 Professor of Fiber Science & Apparel Design and the director of the Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Professor Hinestroza has extensive experience in a variety of research environments, including academia, the military, nonprofit organizations, startups, and large corporations. He has worked in institutions across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North and South America. Professor Hinestroza’s main research efforts aim at understanding fundamental phenomena at the nanoscale that are of relevance to fiber and polymer science.

Professor Hinestroza is an inventor of more than 51 granted international patents and an author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles and six book chapters as well as an editor of a book on cellulose-based green composites. His innovative work has given rise to three startup companies, and he has served as a consultant to some of the largest Fortune 500 corporations and investment banks in the field of smart and interactive textiles and fibers.

Professor Hinestroza obtained a Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Tulane University and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Industrial de Santander. Prior to pursuing his doctoral studies, he worked as a process control engineer for the Dow Chemical Company. Professor Hinestroza has received over $8.8M USD in funding (federal and state agencies as well as industrial consortiums) for his research in understanding and exploring new pathways for creating multifunctional fibers via the manipulation of nanoscale phenomena.

After an undergraduate degree in Music and a brief career as a professional musician and music teacher, Shefford P. Baker studied Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Stanford University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1993. Professor Baker was a staff scientist at the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung in Stuttgart from 1993 to 1997 and joined the Cornell faculty in 1998. He was visiting professor at the Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Saint Jérome, Université Paul Cézanne, Marseille, in summer 2006. Professor Baker has received several teaching awards at Cornell.