Emeritus status for 16 on faculty

Sixteen professors are moving to emeritus status this year, after teaching a total of 417 years at the University. They are:

Behavioral ecologist JEANNE ALTMANN, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, developed the Amboseli Baboon Research Project in Kenya, one of the world’s most intensive studies of large mammals. She has been a Princeton faculty member since 1998.

DAVID P. BILLINGTON ’50, the Gordon
Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering, spent a half-century on the faculty and developed two of the engineering school’s most popular courses, “Structures in the Urban Environment” and “Engineering in the Modern World.”  

Art and archaeology professor PATRICIA FORTINI BROWN joined the faculty in 1983 and became the first woman to receive tenure in her department in 1989. She is a leading specialist in the art of Renaissance Venice.  

WILLIAM A.P. CHILDS ’64 *71 taught Greek and Near Eastern art and archaeology at Princeton for 36 years and chaired the art and archaeology department from 1985 to 1988. His work included excavations in Turkey, Sicily, and Cyprus.

Choreographer and dancer ZE’EVA COHEN joined the Princeton faculty in 1969, guiding the growth of the dance curriculum for four decades.

Computer music innovator PERRY COOK has held a joint appointment in the computer science and music departments since 1996. In addition to his research and writing, Cook developed inventions like the “DigitalDoo,” a digitally enhanced didgeridoo.

Art and archaeology professor SLOBODAN CURCIC, a prolific scholar and expert in Byzantine architecture, chaired his department from 1988 to 1990 and directed the Program in Hellenic Studies from 2006 to 2010.  

ARCADIO DÍAZ-QUIÑONEZ, the Emory L. Ford Professor of Spanish, is an essayist, scholar, and public intellectual whose primary interests include Latin American cultural history and Caribbean poetry. He also directed the Program in Latin American Studies.

Chemistry professor G. CHARLES DISMUKES, a faculty member since 1978, has studied the role of metals in biological systems and biological and chemical methods for splitting water. Recent work includes the development of bioinspired synthetic catalysts for renewable energy production.

Leading economist AVINASH DIXIT, the John J.F. Sherrerd University Professor of Economics, has published influential research in subfields ranging from game theory to international trade.  

Visual arts professor EMMET GOWIN mentored generations of photographers at Princeton, beginning in 1973. His work, celebrated in a recent University Art Museum exhibit, ranges from portraiture to aerial photography.

Classics professor JANET MARTIN joined the faculty in 1973 and was the first woman to be granted tenure in her department. Her scholarly interests include literature and history of the Middle Ages and feminist literary theory and the classics.

Psychology professor ANNE TREISMAN has made major contributions to the understanding of attention and perception in nearly five decades as a professor, including 18 years at Princeton.

DANIEL C. TSUI, the Arthur Legrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering, shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in the discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations. He taught at Princeton for 28 years.

JAMES WEI, the dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1991 to 2002, entered emeritus status in February. Wei, the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical Engineering, had a distinguished research career in chemical-reaction engineering.