Haslam College of Business - Business Analytics and Statistics Faculty Earn Tenure, Promotions

A trio of Business Analytics and Statistics faculty members in the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, recently received some good news: Wei Zheng, an associate professor was granted tenure; Haileab Hilafu was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor; and Adam Petrie was promoted to senior lecturer.

Wei Zheng joined the Haslam faculty in 2017. He previously served as a professor at Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor’s from Zhejiang University. His main research and teaching interest is optimal design of experiments, which concerns the most cost-effective way of conducting experiments to maximize the information drawn from the data collected.

Haileab Hilafu‘s research interest lies in the statistical analysis of high-dimensional datasets: dimension reduction, visualization, classification, cluster analysis and statistical computing. He received his PhD and master’s in statistics from the University of Georgia and his bachelor’s from the University of Asmara. He came to Haslam in 2014.

Adam Petrie focuses his research and teaching on multivariate exploratory data analysis, statistical computing and data streaming. He serves as the director of Haslam’s prestigious Melton Scholars program and teaches extensively at both the undergraduate and MSBA levels. He holds a PhD in Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems and a master’s in Statistics and Operations Research, as well a master’s in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He earned his bachelor’s in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. He joined Haslam in 2007.

Department Head Michael Galbreth offered his congratulations to the three faculty members.

“Through their outstanding contributions to research and their unflagging efforts in the classroom, Adam, Haileab and Wei have served the college with distinction,” Galbreth, the Pilot Corporation Chair of Excellence, said. “Through their work they have more than earned these promotions.”

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CONTACT:

Scott McNutt, business writer/publicist, rmcnutt4@utk.edu