Fourteen professors add ‘emeritus’ to their titles

Fourteen professors, with a combined total of 458 years of teaching at Princeton, have transferred to emeritus status.

PAUL BENACERRAF ’52 *60, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, has been a member of the faculty since 1960. His interests are in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language. He twice served as chairman of the philosophy department and held administrative positions as associate dean of the Graduate School, associate provost for special studies, and provost.

Politics professor NANCY BERMEO’s work has focused on the causes and consequences of regime change, especially in Western Europe and Latin America. A member of the faculty for 25 years, she has been active in promoting gender equity. In 1998 she was the first recipient of the Stanley Kelly Jr. Teaching Award.

HERMAN S. ERMOLAEV *59, professor of Slavic languages and literatures, joined the faculty in 1959. An authority on Russian literature of the Soviet period, he has taught both advanced courses and a survey course on Soviet literature that attracted as many as 350 students a semester.

Psychology professor SAM GLUCKSBERG, a faculty member for 44 years, has been a pioneer in exploring how people use and understand language in everyday life, especially their use of metaphor, irony, sarcasm, and idioms. He has been a popular teacher of “Introduction to Psychology” and “General Psychology.”

MAITLAND JONES JR., the David B. Jones Professor of Chemistry, came to Princeton in 1964. His research lab focused on reactive intermediate chemistry, but he is best known for developing a small-group, problem-based approach to teaching “Orgo” — the introductory, yearlong course in organic chemistry taken by most scientists, engineers, and premed students at Princeton.

DANIEL KAHNEMAN, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and professor of psychology and public affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School, has been a faculty member since 1993. His research on judgment and decision-making is widely cited, especially in economics; more recently he has focused on the psychological underpinnings of subjective well-being. He won the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics.

ULRICH KNOEPFLMACHER *61, the William and Annie S. Paton Foundation Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature, came to Princeton in 1979. A scholar of Victorian fiction, he is known for his work on children’s literature, which helped to attract the Cotsen Collection to Firestone Library. Dedicated to teaching at all levels, he has been actively involved with the Teachers as Scholars program.

SUZANNE NASH *72, professor of French and Italian, has researched and taught French poetry and poetic theory and the interrelationships of poetry and the visual arts and sculpture. A faculty member since 1972, she served as acting director of the Program in Women’s Studies in the early 1990s.

ANDREW H. PLAKS ’67 *73, professor of East Asian studies and comparative literature, joined the faculty in 1973. A scholar of early Chinese philosophical and historical texts and Min-Qing fiction, Plaks also has studied premodern Japanese literature. He has published significant works in three languages — English, Chinese, and Hebrew.

THOMAS G. SPIRO, Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry, began teaching at Princeton in 1963, focusing on research in bioinorganic chemistry, biophysical chemistry, and environmental chemistry. Spiro is a former chemistry department chairman and helped create the Princeton Environmental Institute.

Sociology professor HOWARD F. TAYLOR came to Princeton in 1973. He directed the Program in African-American Studies from 1973 to 1988 and helped shape the sociology department’s courses in the study of race, social class, and gender. He is best known for teaching “The Social Basis of Individual Behavior” and “Race, Class, and Intelligence in America.” In 2000 he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

SCOTT D. TREMAINE *75, the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation, joined the University’s astrophysics department in 1997. His research topics have included the size of our galaxy, the growth and properties of black holes, and the structure of the Andromeda galaxy. He also served as department chairman for eight years.

JOHN R. WILLIS, professor of Near Eastern studies, came to Princeton in 1972. His work has centered on Islam in Africa, with his recent research on fatwas, or legal opinions. Willis was chairman of the African-American studies program in 1972.

JOHN WILMERDING, the Christopher Binyon Sarofim ’86 Professor in American Art, joined the faculty in 1988. A noted curator, collector, and historian of American artistic traditions, he donated a collection of 19th-century American art to the National Gallery of Art in 2004 and a collection of American Pop Art to the University Art Museum this year. Wilmerding was chairman of the Department of Art and Archaeology from 1992 to 1997, and his courses in the department and for the Program in American Studies consistently have been popular.