Five new faculty joined the BYU Engineering community within the past year.
They bring their own light from various backgrounds, growing experiences, education, and fields of research. Meet the newest faces at our college.
DR. HONGJUAN RAN
Dr. Hongjuan Ran began teaching mechanical engineering at BYU in October 2024. Ran studied and taught in several places around the world before coming to BYU: Switzerland, the United Kingdom, her home country of China, and now, the United States.
Her travels and studies allowed her to know her Heavenly Father, she said.
“I found this is the way he chose me,” Ran said. “Without these experiences, without this study and work abroad, without these difficulties, I may not believe in Jesus Christ.”
During her joint PhD in Switzerland, someone on the street asked Ran if she knew that Jesus loves her. Ran tried praying and reading the New Testament to get to know Jesus Christ then chose to be baptised in a Christian church in Switzerland.
After wrestling with where to go next in her career, Ran felt led by God to go to Cambridge University. There, she met two senior missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as 15-20 BYU exchange students. Their examples inspired Ran, and she decided to be baptized again.
“The fruits of this church are very nice. That means the church is true,” Ran said.
After converting to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ran overcame difficulties as she returned to China, participated in a small single adult ward, and continued to grow her testimony.
It seems not easy, but I think God prepared the way and makes things become easy,” Ran said. “He gives you more power and the energy to stand still.
Ran came to BYU and enjoyed the singular aim to be more like Jesus Christ and bring those around her closer to Him. She serves as a primary teacher in her ward and is learning how to build a church-centered family life with her husband.
“I will learn from my colleagues or the students … petit à petit in French. It’s ‘step by step.’ Little by little,” Ran said.
Ran’s research focuses on the unsteady flow of turbo machines in nuclear power plants. She believes that all wisdom, in every subject, is from God, and encourages students to approach Heavenly Father in search of it.
DR. JOSEPH RICH
Coming back to BYU to be a professor was not in Dr. Joseph Rich’s plans. However, after guidance from Heavenly Father and insights from previous faculty mentors at BYU, Rich decided to return to his alma mater in July 2025.
Rich teaches in BYU Chemical & Biological Engineering. His research theme is “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass,” Rich said.
His lab, coined the Microsystems Nano-Engineering Lab, looks to manipulate physical properties at a molecular level. Rich believes that learning to do so will widen the engineering perspective of nature and its mechanisms.
He learned how to work hard for discovery on his mission in Argentina, which taught him how to improve his personal capacity.
“That preparation has been better than anything, in terms of applying the rigor of being a missionary to the rigor of being an engineer,” Rich said.
Rich met his wife in a BYU young-single-adult ward. They have three kids; the youngest was born just a week before his interview to work with BYU Engineering. He and his family love to surf, play board games, and go on bike rides.
As an academic community at BYU, each individual has a responsibility to seize their unique opportunities to serve, Rich said.
We each have our own unique set of talents that Heavenly Father has given us, and the goal is to use that to serve other people.
DR. BRADY MOON
Dr. Brady Moon moved his family from Pittsburgh to Springville, Utah, to return to BYU and teach mechanical engineering in July 2025. Moon recently welcomed a baby girl into his family to join his wife and two sons.
Moon enjoys playing with his boys: riding bikes, doing home projects, and helping the oldest get into soccer. In his free time, he loves running along the mountains, enjoying the view of Utah Lake.
“It just feels very blissful,” Moon said. “For my kids, they get to live this new life that's just so free and the epitome of childlike wonder.”
Moon grew up farming in Duchesne, Utah. His dad encouraged him to go to college and study engineering because he was good at math.
Although he teaches mechanical engineering now, Moon chose to study electrical engineering in his undergrad based on advice from friends and a conversation with his teacher in the Provo Missionary Training Center, which led him to join the MAGICC lab after his mission.
His experiences at BYU influenced him to come back as a professor and do the research and mentorship his role models did when he was student. Moon enjoys helping students accomplish their dreams and goals, leading them to new possibilities for their dreams, both spiritually and intellectually.
They have unique talents that they can really magnify, and sometimes that's something they can find themselves, and find through prayer, but also that's what hopefully good mentors are there for, too, is to help find that.
He is passionate about making engineering experiences accessible with outreach programs like Utah Underwater Robotics. Moon participated in the program during his undergraduate and has connected with it again as a BYU Engineering faculty, working with elementary schools to create opportunities for youth.
Moon researches autonomous robotic systems and how they can help engineers gather information about the world without human interaction.
DR. TAYLOR GREENWOOD
Dr. Taylor Greenwood’s career has taken his family to multiple parts of the country, from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Penn State. Greenwood brought his family back to Provo, UT to teach mechanical engineering in August 2025.
Greenwood and his family grew and struggled as they travelled.
“It helped us really deepen our connection to the Lord and trusting in Him and trusting in others, being okay to be helped by others too,” Greenwood said.
Greenwood and his wife have two boys, one learning how to walk and the other learning how things work. Being a dad has helped him understand his own sphere of impact, whether that be with his sons or in his engineering research.
In his lab, Greenwood experiments with soft materials and 3D printing to design different shapes and motions with applications to medicine. He worked with a professor in his master’s degree to create models of vocal folds.
The most exciting part of research for Greenwood is watching students have lightbulb moments, then helping them enact their ideas. This is a process that comes with failure, but Greenwood said that’s a sign of a “professional learner.”
Messing up is part of the process, and I think it's pretty cool that the gospel teaches that too. Repentance is not the backup plan. It's the plan.
One thing he loves about BYU is that research has a focus of doing good with direct impact. Greenwood enjoys bringing the warm and accepting culture he experienced on his mission in Brazil into his work: being part of the good people everywhere, doing good everywhere.
In his free time, Greenwood enjoys disc golf, bird watching, and making things—like a wooden chess board or leather cowboy hat.
DR. TODD NELSON
Dr. Todd Nelson’s return to BYU to teach also wasn’t in his original plan, but he was drawn to the unique position to mentor students academically and spiritually, in coming closer to Christ. Nelson started teaching mechanical engineering at BYU in August 2025.
Early in his education, Nelson earned the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. With it, he was able to pick his own graduate research topics, which opened unique career paths he wouldn’t have been able to explore before.
Nelson encourages students to recognize the expert in everybody they come in contact with. Mutually beneficial relationships come from engaging with others in that way, he said.
Nelson said his mission in Bulgaria impacts what he does everyday, giving him perspective on the value of his work.
“Sometimes the results and effects can impact just one person, and that's good enough,” Nelson said. “If you're never failing, or you're never getting things wrong, you're probably not challenging yourself.”
Nelson applies that mindset to his research as he combines a study of mechanisms and inspiration from art and nature in design. He works with the compliant mechanisms lab to utilize assorted mechanism design techniques in new combinations and overcome traditional setbacks.
The more you are a part of [research], I see it kind of like God allows us a little glimpse of what the creative process is like.
His four kids—ranging from 1 to 8 years old—bring a lot of energy into his home. Nelson coaches his daughter’s soccer team.
“I think there's more to life than just your discipline, right? You're a complete person,” Nelson said.