Named Professorships

The Cornell Board of Trustees recently voted to elect the following faculty members to named professorships:

Martha L.A. Fineman has been named the first Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Feminist Jurisprudence in the Cornell Law School. Fineman is the first occupant of an endowed chair in the United States devoted to the study of feminist jurisprudence. The appointment was effective Feb. 1.

Fineman also will head the new Dorothea S. Clarke Feminism and Legal Theory Program. She comes to Cornell from the Columbia University School of Law, where she held a chaired professorship. She is considered the foremost feminist scholar in family law in the United States, and her appointment represents a major addition to Cornell's law faculty. Two of her most influential books are: The Neutered Mother (Routledge, 1995) and The Illusion of Equality (University of Chicago, 1991).

The Dorothea S. Clarke Professorship of Feminist Jurisprudence and the Dorothea S. Clarke Feminism and Legal Theory Program are provided through gifts from Dorothea S. Clarke and Jack G. Clarke from a charitable remainder trust that they established with Cornell in 1997. Dorothea received her B.A. in 1948 from Hofstra University and Jack Clarke received his LL.B at Cornell in 1952. The Clarkes chose to create such an endowment because of their interest in women's issues.

Thomas D. O'Rourke, professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been named the Thomas R. Briggs Professor in Engineering, effective Jan. 1.

O'Rourke succeeds Keith Gubbins in the professorship, established in 1964 through gifts from former trustee Floyd R. Newman '12 and the Ford Foundation.

O'Rourke, who is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has won six national awards for his research. In 1998 he was elected to the board of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

His research interests include earthquake engineering, lifeline systems and advanced technologies for new construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure. His main contributions have been in combining the principles and practices of geotechnical engineering with those of lifeline earthquake engineering through laboratory testing, analysis, earthquake reconnaissance and the design and siting of natural gas, liquid fuel and water-supply lifeline systems.

He has served on reconnaissance missions for four major earthquakes, including the 1995 temblor in Kobe, Japan. He is currently involved in the development and application of deep mining technologies to stabilize weak sediments for deep excavations to build the Boston Central Artery.

O'Rourke earned his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1975 and served on its teaching and research staff before joining the Cornell faculty in 1978.