Dear FAS Faculty,
Even at this time of unprecedented disruption, our community remains a source of inspiration and motivation. The FAS is filled with brilliant and pathbreaking scholars and teachers, and during the last weeks, numerous colleagues have received national and international recognition for their contributions. Please join me in congratulating them.
We began our lockdown with the spectacular news that Gregory Margulis, Erastus L. DeForest Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, was awarded the Abel Prize in Mathematics – the field’s equivalent to the Nobel prize. In subsequent weeks, colleagues across our community were lauded for their excellence.
David Blight, Sterling Professor of American History, has been awarded the Gold Medal for History by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the organization’s highest honor, in recognition of the eminence of his body of work, which has been decorated with honors including the Pulitzer Prize in 2019.
Yale’s History department now includes three Pulitzer prize-winners, as Greg Grandin, Professor of History, was last week awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction for The End of Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. (In addition to David Blight and Greg Grandin, our colleague John Gaddis, Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military & Naval History, was awarded the Pulitzer in 2012.)
A number of our colleagues have been named to important academic bodies:
- Scott Miller, Irénée du Pont Professor of Chemistry, has been elected to the National Academy of Science
- Five members of the FAS Faculty have been elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: congratulations to Shun-Ichiro Karato, Adolph Knopf Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science; Isabela Mares, Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science; James Mayer, Charlotte Fitch Roberts Professor of Chemistry; Claudia Rankine, Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry; and Jennifer Richeson, Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology.
- Nicholas Read, Henry Ford II Professor of Physics and Professor of Applied Physics and Mathematics, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society
- Charles Ahn, John C. Malone Professor of Applied Physics, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and Physics, has been named a Fellow of the Materials Research Society
- Peter Schiffer, Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics, has been named a Senior Fellow of the American Association of Universities
FAS faculty have received national fellowships this Spring, including:
- Edyta Bojanowska, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
- Stavroula Hatzios, Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and of Chemistry in the Yale Microbial Sciences Institute, named a Scialog Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease Fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA)
- Professor Brian Scassellati, A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of Computer Science & Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, named an American Association for the Advancement of Science Leshner Public Engagement Fellow
Other faculty prizes and awards celebrate the breadth of excellence in the FAS:
- Dana Angluin, James Aspnes and Michael Fischer, Professors of Computer Science was awarded the 2020 ACM-EATCS Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing
- Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature, was awarded the Enrique Anderson Imbert Prize from the North American Academy of the Spanish Language
- John Fortner, Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, was awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize
- Dylan Gee, Assistant Professor of Psychology, received the 2020 Abidin Early Career Award and Grant
- Martin Hägglund, Professor of Comparative Literature and of Humanities, was awarded the prestigious René Wellek Prize for Best Book in the field of comparative literature for his much-lauded volume This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
- Sharon Hammes-Schiffer, John Gamble Kirkwood Professor of Chemistry, was awarded the 2020-21 Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize from the University of Wisconsin
- Charles Musser, Professor of American Studies, Film Studies, and Theater Studies, was awarded the Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies
- William Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics and Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies, was awarded the 2020 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize from the American Academy of Political and Social Science
- L.A. Paul, Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, was awarded the 2020 Lebowitz Prize from the American Philosophical Association
And warm congratulations to the winners of the 2020 Yale College teaching prizes, including Shelly Kagan, Clark Professor of Philosophy, winner of the Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for teaching excellence in the humanities; Brian Scassellati, A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of Computer Science and professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, winner of the Dylan Hixon ’88 Prize for teaching excellence in the natural sciences; Claudia Valeggia, Professor of Anthropology, winner of the Lex Hixon ’63 Prize for teaching excellence in the social sciences; Camille Thomasson, Lecturer in Film and Media Studies, winner of the Richard H. Brodhead ’68 Prize for teaching excellence by a non-ladder faculty member; and Dana Angluin, Professor of Computer Science, winner of the Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize, given to a faculty member who over a long period of service has inspired a great number of students and consistently fostered learning both inside and outside the classroom.
This list represents only represents awards and recognition brought to our attention since early March. I’m sure that there are others that we do not know of, and that there will be more to come. We encourage you to tell the FAS Dean’s Office of such honors, so that we can celebrate them with you.
It is a privilege to work with you all.
Warmly,
Tamar
Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive