Emeritus status for 12 on faculty

A dozen Princeton professors are moving to emeritus status this year. They are:

Anthropology professor JAMES BOON ’68, the first student to earn a certificate in anthropology at Princeton, conducted fieldwork in Java and Bali and wrote on several topics, including comparative studies of societies and institutions. He returned to his alma mater in 1989 and chaired the department in 1998–99 and from 2002 to 2007.  

GARRY BROWN, the Robert ­Porter Patterson Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, joined the faculty in 1990. An expert in the science of turbulent flows and wind-tunnel technology, Brown served as department chairman for eight years and helped to deepen Princeton’s commitment to materials science.

History professor PETER BROWN first came to Princeton as a visitor in 1983, shortly after receiving a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, and he accepted a permanent spot on the faculty three years later. Brown is best known as the creator of a field of study known as late antiquity.

Astrophysical sciences professor RONALD C. DAVIDSON *66, a former director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, has made fundamental contributions to the theory and applications of plasma physics. In 2008, he received the field’s highest honor, the James Clerk Maxwell Prize, from the American Physical Society.

JAMES E. GUNN, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy, led one of astronomy’s most ambitious projects, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which obtained images of more than 300 ­million objects in the celestial sphere. In recognition of his theoretical and observational research, Gunn received the National Medal of Science in 2009.  

Geosciences professor LINCOLN ­HOLLISTER, known for his innovative methods and research tools, devoted most of his 43 years at Princeton to studying the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and Alaska to gain insights about continental-crust ­formation.  

HENRY S. HORN, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, joined the Princeton faculty in 1966 and studied a range of questions, including the geometry and developmental patterns of trees, the wind dispersal of seeds, and the behavior of butterflies.  

SIMON KOCHEN *59, a member of the mathematics faculty since 1967, has been known for applying mathematical logic to a range of problems, including the concept of free will, which he studied with Princeton colleague John Conway. Kochen chaired his department from 1990 to 1993.

Economics professor BURTON G. MALKIEL *64 published A Random Walk Down Wall Street in 1973, promoting the then-innovative idea of index funds to an audience that extended well beyond the boundaries of academia. Malkiel has continued to study investment management and the stock market, and he has served on several key committees at the University.

Novelist, essayist, and professor RICARDO PIGLIA first came to Princeton as a fellow in the Council of Humanities and later joined the faculty as the Walter S. Carpenter Professor of Language, Literature, and Civilization of Spain. His 2010 book, Blanco nocturno, was awarded Spain’s Premio Nacional de la Cri ́ tica for the year’s best novel.

Computer science professor KENNETH STEIGLITZ, a founder of the field of digital signal processing, joined the faculty in 1963 at age 24. He aided the compositions of early digital musicians, studied computer network theory, and took a keen interest in new developments such as Internet auctions, publishing a book in 2007 on eBay and human behavior.