Editor’s Note: The following actions were taken by the Regents at their November meeting.
By Wono Lee
News and Information Services
Gifts received
The Regents, at their Nov. 15 meeting, formally accepted a total of $10,683,158 in gifts received by the University during October of this year.
The total included $7,018,143 from individuals, $1,124,110 from corporations, $1,624,395 from foundations, and $916,510 from associations and others.
Faculty appointments
Faculty appointments approved by the Regents at their Nov. 15 meeting included:
Twila Zoe Tardif, a faculty member at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, will be associate professor of psychology, with tenure, effective Jan. 1.
James C. Bean, professor of industrial and operations engineering, who has been serving as associate dean for graduate education of the College of Engineering since 1999, will become associate dean for academic affairs of the College of Engineering, effective Jan. 1.
Endowed titled professorships
Donna L. Algase, professor of nursing, will hold the Josephine Sana Collegiate Professorship of Nursing, effective Nov. 1; Kang Geun Shin, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will hold the Kevin and Nancy O’Connor Professorship of Computer Science, effective Dec. 1; Mark A. Tessler, professor of political science, will hold the Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professorship of Political Science, effective Jan. 1; Christina Brooks Whitman, professor of law and of women’s studies, will hold the Francis A. Allen Collegiate Professorship of Law, effective Nov. 1; and Henry T. Wright, professor of anthropology, will hold the Albert Clanton Spaulding Collegiate Professorship of Anthropology, effective Jan. 1.
Algase is “a recognized national and international scholar with a focus on care of older persons with wandering behavior as a consequence of dementia,” said Ada Sue Hinshaw, dean of the School of Nursing. “Funded by several NIH institutes, Dr. Algase is acknowledged as one of the foremost scientists in the field of wandering behavior and care of the frail elderly. Her students evaluate her teaching, which heavily integrates her research interest, as outstanding. She is currently building a new specialty program in care of the frail elders and their families while also offering a new interdisciplinary course for undergraduates.”
Shin is “a leading scholar in the field of real-time control and computing,” said Stephen W. Director, dean of the College of Engineering. “He has authored or co-authored more than 500 papers and book chapters and his research has led to advances in such diverse areas as automotive manufacturing, embedded computing systems and Internet services. Prof. Shin has supervised more than 40 students who earned their Ph.Ds and are now leaders in the academy and industry. He was elected an IEEE Fellow in 1992 and just last month received a Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award.”
Tessler is “a nationally recognized scholar on political change in the Middle East and North Africa, and is a pioneer in the development of truly cross- national survey research in that area of the world,” said Shirley Neuman, dean of LS&A. “His body of research on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict constitutes an indispensable contribution to the study of these difficult issues. The work is impressive for its historical depth, analytical sophistication, and scholarly objectivity. He is currently analyzing public opinion data from six Middle Eastern countries, giving prominent attention to attitudes and values relating to democracy, Israeli-Palestinian peace, political Islam, and gender.”
Whitman’s scholarship, while varied, “has focused on the field of constitutional torts, evaluating the success of and values underlying the scheme of legal liabilities imposed on governmental officers acting within the scope of their official responsibility,” said Jeffrey S. Lehman, dean of the Law School. “Most recently, Prof. Whitman served for almost five years as the associate dean for academic affairs at the Law School. In innumerable ways, Prof. Whitman is a dedicated member of the Law School and University community.” In 2000, she also was appointed professor of women’s studies in LS&A.
Wright is “an exceptional scholar who has made major contributions to our knowledge of how ancient civilizations developed,” Neuman said. “He is, in fact, the leading theorist on how ‘pristine’ or first-generation states formed. His work has broad implications for the study of chiefdoms and states in every part of the world. Prof. Wright’s early research on state formation in the Near East was revolutionary in its own right. Although the rise of power of the Ayatollah Khomeini halted his fieldwork there, he hopes to return to complete his research on state formation that he began in 1967. A superb teacher, excavator, and highly creative thinker, Prof. Wright’s pioneering research has led to his induction into the National Academy of Sciences and to his selection for a MacArthur ‘genius’ fellowship.
