The following faculty members' elections to named professorships were approved by the Cornell Board of Trustees at its fall meeting in Ithaca. The appointments became effective Nov. 1, 1998.
Stephen Coate, professor in the Department of Economics, as the first Kiplinger Professor in Economics.
Austin H. Kiplinger, a 1939 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, has been a Cornell Trustee since 1960 and was chair of the board from 1984 to 1989. During his tenure he brought to the board a special sensitivity to the importance of arts and letters in undergraduate education. As chair of the Performing Arts Advisory Committee, he traveled coast to coast, focusing his energy to garner support for the construction of Cornell's Center for Theatre Arts. Now a trustee emeritus, he serves on the Committee for Alumni Affairs and Development. He served as co-chair of the most recent Cornell Campaign: Creating the Future, a member of the Major Gifts Committee, and is a life-member of the University Council. In 1989, Kiplinger was appointed a Presidential Councillor. He established the professorship in 1993.
Coate is an applied microeconomic theorist who has made important contributions on a variety of issues relevant to policy, particularly in the areas of public economics and political economy. His work on public economics has concentrated on the problem of designing income maintenance programs, examining how incentive constraints affect the design of a transfer policy intended to ensure a minimum level of income for all citizens. The impact of this line of research in academic circles is already quite evident, and his sequence of papers on this topic is becoming standard reference on the design of income maintenance programs. His recent paper, "An Economic Model of Representative Democracy," already is being acknowledged as one of the key papers in the "new political economy," an area that is attracting increasing attention from economists and political scientists. Coate has served as a consultant to the World Bank. He has taught at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and in 1992 and 1993 was awarded the University of Pennsylvania's Irving B. Kravis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
David Bathrick, professor in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, as a Jacob Gould Schurman Professor.
Jacob Gould Schurman was a philosopher of distinction who came to Cornell in 1886 as the first Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy; he later was named the first dean of the Sage School of Philosophy, and he became the third president of Cornell in 1892, retiring in 1920 after serving as president for 28 years. The original Jacob Gould Schurman Professorship of German Literature was established in 1967 by a gift from Jacob Gould Schurman III to honor Cornell's third president. In 1976 the Board of Trustees approved the establishment of five additional Jacob Gould Schurman chairs, with the understanding that the original Jacob Gould Schurman chair would be continued and reserved in perpetuity for the field of German literature.
Since coming to Cornell in 1986, Bathrick has established himself as one of the most important faculty citizens in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the driving force behind New German Critique, a journal he founded at the University of Wisconsin in 1973 and brought with him to Cornell, and the transformation of the Department of German Literature into the Department of German Studies. He has been the leading figure in the development of cultural studies as a paradigm for interdisciplinary inquiry at Cornell, and he has been department chair, first of German Studies, and now of Theatre, Film and Dance. His role in expanding theater arts into film and dance and in institutionalizing the department's broadened identity has been pivotal. He has made an immense contribution to the vitality of the humanities at Cornell.
Glenn C. Altschuler, professor of American Studies, as the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor in American Studies.
The gift is a reflection of the Litwins' devotion to the United States and their commitment to providing undergraduates at Cornell with a firm understanding of the American experience through endowing a professorship in the American Studies Program. The professorship shall be continually occupied except for time needed to select appropriate candidates.
Thomas Litwin, AB '55, is the former CEO of Gordon & Thomas Companies, and Dorothy Eiseman Litwin, AB '57, is the managing director of the firm, which the Litwins founded in East Orange, N.J. The Litwins have been active volunteers for Cornell for many years, serving on the University Council, the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council and the Student Aid Campaign Committee as well as on class and community committees.
Altschuler's career at the university is one marked by dedication, hard work and accomplishment as an administrator, teacher, adviser and scholar. After teaching for five years at Ithaca College, he returned to Cornell in 1981 as assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, where he was in charge of the advising program for freshmen. At this point he already had published his first book, Andrew D. White -- Educator, Historian, Diplomat (Cornell University Press, 1979) and had completed the manuscript of the second, Race, Ethnicity and Class in American Social Thought, 1865-1919 (1982). Since that time he has three additional books to his credit. In 1986 Altschuler became associate dean of advising and alumni affairs in Arts and Sciences, a position in which he served as chair of the Academic Records Committee and sat on the executive committees of the Program of Agriculture and the Liberal Arts, the Language House Program and Cornell Adult University. In 1991 he was elected dean of the Division of Summer Session, Extramural Study and Related Programs, since renamed the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions. For the past decade Altschuler has been the key animating force in the rapidly growing program in American Studies, teaching immensely popular courses in American history and in contemporary American culture. He also has been a major campus advocate for the cause of serious undergraduate advising, a role recognized last spring when he received the Donna and Robert Paul Award for Excellence in Advising. Professor Altschuler is the first holder of this professorship.
Noel C. MacDonald, professor in the School of Electrical Engineering, as the first Acheson/Laibe Professor of Business Management and Leadership Studies.
In March 1998, John W. Laibe '50 and Acheson Industries, in memory of Howard A. Acheson Jr. '50, made a commitment to strengthen the engineering college's academic excellence and promote the concepts of management and leadership as part of an engineering education that will foster not only students' exposure to and understanding of business, but also encourage students to become leaders. Laibe, chair of Acheson Industries, and Margaret Ache-son Allesee, director of Acheson Industries, expressed their desire to endow a professorship in the College of Engineering and that the holder of the position be an advocate for the integration of business concepts throughout the engineering curriculum and advance collaboration between the college and other business programs on the campus. The professorship was established in May of this year.
MacDonald is a distinguished leader in the college and in the university. He has served as director of the Semiconductor Research Center as well as director of the School of Electrical Engineering from 1989 to 1994. His most significant impact at Cornell clearly has been his world-renowned research in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). He started a major research program to develop micromechanical structures on silicon chips using single-crystal silicon micromachining techniques. His group pioneered the development of high-aspect-ratio (up to 50:1) etching in silicon, which has allowed the formation of unique microstructures. His success in the MEMS area has led to worldwide acclaim and awareness. He has graduated nine Ph.D. students in the area in the past three years. Last year he had three visiting scientists, a research associate, 18 graduate students, two M.Eng. students and two undergraduates in his group. Very few faculty have had MacDonald's high level of impact on their field, their graduate students and their school.
Watt W. Webb, professor in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics, as a Samuel B. Eckert Professor.
The Eckert Professorships may be in the field of engineering (other than civil or architectural engineering) or in the allied fields of chemistry or physics. The income from the principal is used to support the professorships in such a manner as will enable the university to attract teachers of the highest professional standards and of special distinction or promise. One of the principal purposes of the professorships is to enable the university to compete with industry in attracting such teachers. The income also supports the professorships in accessory ways such as research or teaching assistants, private laboratory, equipment, books, materials, off-campus activities, travel and other means in furtherance of the professorships and their contribution to Cornell. The professorships were established in 1987.
Webb has, for quite some time, been the most successful and nationally prominent researcher in applied and engineering physics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers. He also has been the recipient of the foremost annual prize in biological physics. Webb has had a rich and amazingly diverse scientific career, beginning in metallurgy, moving to superconductivity and critical phenomena and ending up most recently in biophysics. In particular, his recent invention and applications of the two-photon fluorescence microscope constitute a truly singular and seminal achievement that is having, and will continue to have, major technological and scientific impact on the biophysics and biomedical fields. During his earlier days at Cornell he had several administrative appointments and taught small graduate-level courses. Throughout his years he has consistently proven to be an outstanding mentor and careful supervisor of graduate students. Currently Webb is supervising six graduate students, while six undergraduates are working in his laboratory. He has been of service to the department, college and university as a director of Applied and Engineering Physics and director of Biophysics Training Grant and through serving on the Cornell Research Foundation board of directors.
Charles Van Loan, professor in the Department of Computer Science, as a Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering.
Joseph C. Ford was a graduate of the Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell in the class of 1911. He was a manufacturing executive and a director of Wisconsin Telephone, the First National Bank of Madison and Ray-O-Vac Co. In addition, he was founder and chair of the Madison Community Trust Fund and founder and president of the Celon Co. The Joseph C. Ford Professorship in Mechanical Engineering was established in 1958 through a bequest in the will of his wife, Vera Veerhusen Ford, for the purpose of providing a distinguished professorship in mechanical engineering and in such specialized fields in the College of Engineering as the university may determine. Because of the growth of the endowment, the board of trustees voted in 1980 to authorize the appointment of two or more concurrent holders of the Joseph C. Ford Professorships.
Van Loan has a unique standing in the field of numerical linear algebra, which is the foundation of all scientific computing. He is one of two in this country to dominate this field (the other is Gene Golub of Stanford, recently his co-author); their book is the bible in the discipline. Van Loan's work impacts the areas of eigen problems, least squares, parallel computing and Fourier analysis. For Van Loan teaching and research are inextricably mixed. He routinely teaches all five of the recitation sections of his large (over 200 students) freshman introduction to computing course. This reflects an extraordinary outpouring of time, energy and concern unsurpassed in this department. He also was the primary force behind building the undergraduate program web site for computer science. In addition to his service as director of undergraduate studies and his teaching and research activities, Van Loan has 26 undergraduate advisees. One of his students said it well: "He is the most caring, principled, hard-working and effective adviser I know."
John M. Blakely, professor and director of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, as the Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Industrial Chemistry.
The late Herbert Fisk Johnson graduated from Cornell in 1922. He was an active board member from 1947 to 1972, an emeritus board member from 1972 to 1978, a Presidential Councillor and unquestionably one of the university's preeminent benefactors. The Herbert Fisk Johnson Professorship of Industrial Chemistry was established in 1941. A letter from S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. stated: "Whereas, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., the alma mater of President Herbert F. Johnson Jr., desires to establish a Chair of Industrial Chemistry . . . this corporation desires to donate a gift to aid in the creation of said Chair before the close of the 1940-41 university year."
Blakely is an internationally renowned research scientist ranking among the top 10 materials scientists in the world. He has pioneered a range of materials science techniques. He developed interferometry and magnetic force methods for the study of mechanical behavior of thin metal films. He invented the method of modulated surface decay for atom motion studies, and he devised a method to identify atomistics of solid-liquid interface motion. He also developed the currently accepted theory of segregation to internal boundaries by recognizing the correspondence with gas phase adsorption. Recently he has been working with probe microscopies on surfaces of disordered solids (e.g. glass), and he has invented a novel X-ray technique to study lattice strains in semiconductors. He was elected a fellow of the Institute of Physics (U.K.) in 1972 and of the American Physical Society in 1978. As a teacher his courses range from a large materials course for engineering sophomores to small specialized graduate-level presentations. He has worked to coordinate the teaching of materials science across the university and worked to institute a new dual-degree program in materials science and electrical engineering.
Donald T. Farley, professor in the School of Electrical Engineering, as the J. Preston Levis Professor of Engineering.
J. Preston Levis received his bache-lor's degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell in 1906. He spent his entire career in the glass industry. After graduating from Cornell he joined Illinois Glass Co., a firm his grandfather had helped found, and eventually became president and chair of the board of the successor firm, Owens-Illinois. He was active in civic affairs in Toledo, Ohio, and was a member of the U.S. Council of the International Chamber of Commerce and a director of the National Association of Manufacturers. He was one of the first members of the Cornell University Council and was a trustee for 11 years, serving much of that time as chair of the Corporate Gifts Committee. In 1971 he was one of the first recipients of the Silver Medal of the College of Engineering. In 1955 he began a fund to endow a professorship in engineering. This was completed in 1963 through a combination of his gifts and a Ford Foundation grant.
Farley developed the principles of radio wave scattering to understand the ionized upper atmosphere, particularly the equatorial ionosphere. His early work in the 1960s resulted in two U.S. Department of Commerce Distinguished Authorship awards and a Gold Medal. This pioneering work has led to the creation of radar observatories at both high and low latitudes, including the Arecibo Radio Observatory. In 1993 he became a fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. As an educator Farley won a College of Engineering Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1996. He has taught technical writing to electrical engineering students and has done so with skill, wit and insight. He has a particular talent for finding simplicity in the face of complexity.
Lee W. Schruben, professor in the School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, as the Andrew Schultz Jr. Professor of Industrial Engineering.
The Andrew Schultz Jr. Professorship of Industrial Engineering was established in 1980 to provide support for a faculty position in the School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. This professorship is funded by the income of an endowment of gifts from corporations, alumni and friends of former Dean Andrew Schultz Jr. Schultz's association with Cornell began in 1932 when he entered the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as a student; he subsequently received the degree of bachelor of science in administrative engineering in 1936 and the doctor of philosophy degree in 1941. With the exception of Army service during World War II, Schultz's entire career was centered at Cornell, where he achieved national recognition for his efforts in the field of operations research and industrial engineering. After the war, Schultz returned to Cornell as an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Administration, advanced to a full professor and became head of the department in 1951. He served as the fifth dean of the College of Engineering from 1963 to 1972. In 1972 he was named the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Engineering and received the college's Engineering Award in recognition of his outstanding service. Schultz retired from Cornell in 1980, however, he again returned to Cornell in 1978 to serve as acting dean of the College of Engineering.
Schruben has been a prolific teacher of undergraduates, one of the central figures in the M.Eng. program and probably the leading researcher in the world in discrete event simulation. He is interested in the analysis of data arising from simulation experiments. To this end he developed the coverage function to study the performance of confidence intervals for parameters arising from simulations. He also introduced the method of standardized time series, a major breakthrough in the field. In recognition of his work in the area of output analysis, Schruben received an Outstanding Publication Award from the Institute of Management Science's College on Simulation and Gaming for papers describing these research techniques. He regularly teaches two of the largest and most demanding courses, ORIE 310 Industrial Systems Analysis and ORIE 580 Design and Analysis of Simulated Systems. Both courses have intensive project activities, which place added burdens on the instructor. His teaching evaluations in these courses are very strong. In the fall of 1997 Schruben introduced a new elective course, Mathematical Models in Engineering Design. The course uses cases from industry to teach important techniques in modeling and design. It was a major success and will be a significant addition to the ORIE curriculum.
Stephen B. Pope, professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, as the Sibley College Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
Hiram Sibley was, in the truest sense, a "self-made man." Although he had little formal education, he showed remarkable aptitude for manufacturing and business, and was successful in such varied enterprises as shoemaking, cotton and woolen manufacturing and running a machine shop. He assisted Samuel Morse and Ezra Cornell in constructing the first telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington and subsequently was the moving force behind the consolidation of a number of small telegraph companies into the Western Union Telegraph Company, of which he was the first president. Sibley was one of the 10 original trustees of Cornell, and he gave generously for the building and equipping of what was then called the College of Mechanical Arts and is now the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Among his gifts to Cornell in the 1870s and 1880s was an endowment fund given in 1884 for a professorship of mechanical arts in the Sibley College. The Hiram Sibley Professorship of Mechanical Engineering is the oldest endowed professorship in the College of Engineering and one of the oldest in the entire university.
Pope is an internationally recognized authority in the fields of turbulent flow and turbulent combustion. He has made major contributions to the field using the Direct Numerical Simulation technique and is the world's leading expert in the development of the probability-density-function method for the prediction of turbulent flows. This method is increasingly being used by industries requiring detailed knowledge of combustion processes, for example those of automotive and gas-turbine engines. He is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a fellow of the American Physical Society. Pope is a thoughtful teacher, who teaches the undergraduate thermodynamics course as well as graduate courses. He developed the materials for the new course Analysis of Turbulent Flows, including writing the textbook. In 1996, he received the J.P. and Mary Barger '50 Excellence in Teaching Award.
Jerome H. Cherney, professor in the Department of Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences, as an E.V. Baker Professor.
The E.V. Baker Professorship was established in 1986. E. Vreeland Baker was a member of the Class of 1923 who came to Cornell from Wills-boro, N.Y. He had a lifelong interest in New York state agriculture, and in 1979 and 1980 he gave Cornell his farm in Willsboro. Upon his death in December 1985, Baker left his estate valued in excess of $15 million to Cornell. The E.V. Baker Professorships were established in his memory in recognition of his interest in New York state agriculture. The chair was established to provide recognition of a professor whose applied research and extension programs are of direct benefit to the farmers of New York and recognized as beneficial to the farmers of northern New York.
Cherney is a leading expert nationally in the biology of forage plants and pasture systems. With a research-extension appointment, he works actively with farmers in the state to improve pasture and livestock grazing systems. As the E.V. Baker Professor, he will provide leadership for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences activities in northern New York; build a coalition of faculty, northern New York leaders in the private and public sector and Cornell Cooperative Extension to promote the environmental and economic viability of northern New York agriculture; and provide fiscal oversight for the utilization of the appropriated state funds for northern New York.
Christine Olson, professor of nutritional sciences, as the first holder of the Hazel E. Reed Human Ecology Extension Professor in Family Policy.
Professor Emerita Hazel E. Reed joined the College of Home Economics faculty in 1949 as associate professor in Cooperative Extension and an assistant state leader of home demonstration agents. Throughout her career at Cornell, she provided strong leadership to community leaders and professional home economics ed ucators in all counties across the state. She encouraged the development of innovative home economics programs at statewide and local levels, established a supervised professional development experience for extension home economists assuming program leadership positions, and chaired a task force whose deliberations led to new opportunities for extension to contribute to the quality of living for children and families and to expand programs emanating from the college to a growing audience. Her experience statewide as well as a love for travel provided her with important perspectives on how different cultures dealt with social concerns. She retired as assistant director of extension and full professor in 1967, and she died in 1997. The Hazel E. Reed Human Ecology Extension Professorship in Family Policy results from a major gift from her estate and many gifts from faculty and staff (over 500 donors) associated with Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Olson is a nationally recognized expert in the field of nutritional sciences and has had a distinguished career in research and extension education. She is the recipient of several national awards for her extension programs and has numerous published articles in refereed journals, including the Journal of Nutrition Education and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. She is the department extension leader for nutritional sciences and a former assistant dean for research and graduate studies for the College of Human Ecology. And she was co-chair of the expert panel at the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine. That panel wrote the award-winning book, Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation: An Implementation Guide. Olson's most recent work is in the area of food insecurity and hunger.
Samuel B. Bacharach, professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior, as the Jean McKelvey-Alice Grant Professor of Labor-Management Relations.
The Jean McKelvey-Alice Grant Professorship of Labor-Management Relations was established in 1990 by a bequest from Professor Emeritus Jean McKelvey in combination with a bequest from the late Alice Bacon Grant. The chair was designed for a faculty member whose work provides substantial benefits to the Extension Division of the ILR School and who holds a joint appointment in the Residence and Extension divisions. The funds are to provide support above and beyond the base salary provided to the faculty member by the state of New York. Incumbents shall have a term of up to five years, and such terms may be renewed for additional terms.
Bacharach has done seminal work in a variety of areas, including organizational politics, negotiation, schools and, most recently, blue-collar workers in a variety of occupations. His current interests are in how the structure and relations in blue-collar workplaces affect the well-being of workers. In 1974 he came to Cornell as an assistant professor of organizational behavior and became an associate professor in 1978 and a full professor in 1983. He has been director of the R. Brinkley Smithers Institute for Workplace Studies and Substance Abuse since 1990, and he has generated outside grants of over $1 million, with most of these funds coming from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He has published extensively in book and article form and is originator and editor of an annual series, Research in the Sociology of Organizations.
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