[Chronicle]

Jan. 20, 1994
Vol. 13, No. 10

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    Eight faculty members named to endowed chairs

    Eight faculty members, including former President Hanna Gray, have been appointed to endowed chairs. These chairs are among the highest honors that can be bestowed upon faculty members.

    "These outstanding faculty members bring great honor to the University. We are pleased to recognize their many contributions," President Sonnenschein said in making the announcement. "They have enhanced the quality of teaching and research at the University in immeasurable ways."

    The professors and their new appointments are as follows.

    Francois Furet Furet, one of the world's foremost authorities on the French Revolution and co-chairman of the Committee on Social Thought, has been named the Raymond W. and Martha Hilpert Gruner Distinguished Service Professor. Furet has helped redefine scholars' interpretation of the French Revolution through his many books, including "Karl Marx and the French Revolution" (1986), "The Revolution 1770-1880" (1988) and "A Dictionary of the French Revolution" (1988), which he co-edited.

    Furet has a joint appointment at the Raymond Aron Center for Political Research in Paris. He joined the University faculty in 1985.

    Hanna Gray Gray, who was President of the University for 15 years, has been named the Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor. She is a specialist in the history of humanism, political and historical thought, and politics in the Renaissance and Reformation. Currently on sabbatical, Gray will return to teaching in the History Department in the 1994 autumn quarter.

    Gray was a member of the Chicago faculty from 1961 to 1972 and returned to the University in 1978 as President, a post she held until 1993. Among her numerous honors and awards are the Charles Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Medal of Liberty and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    Graeme Bell Bell, who is a specialist in the genetics of diabetes, has been awarded a Louis Block Professorship. In 1990, he led a research team that discovered a genetic defect that causes the early onset of type II diabetes. A faculty member in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Bell is the author of nearly 300 scientific papers and holds three U.S. patents. He joined the University faculty in 1986.

    Larry Hedges Hedges has been appointed the Stella M. Rowley Professor. A faculty member in Education, Hedges is an expert on educational evaluation and has published extensively on statistical methodology and other topics. His current work also includes the study of memory. He joined the faculty in 1984 and served as Chairman of Education from 1988 to 1991.

    Donald Levy Levy has been named the Ralph and Mary Otis Isham Professor. Levy, a physical chemist, uses the technique of supersonic jet cooling to study the structure of molecules. He was one of the first chemists to exploit the technique, which entails cooling a gas by rapidly expanding it into a vacuum, thereby "freezing" the motion of the molecules and making them much easier to study. Levy is a member of the Chemistry Department; he joined the faculty in 1967.

    Janel Mueller Mueller, an expert on the development of English prose style in the 15th and 16th centuries, has been appointed the William Rainey Harper Professor in the College. Her scholarship has focused on the work of John Donne and John Milton, and she has explored Renaissance texts from a feminist perspective. Mueller, who came to Chicago in 1967, was awarded the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1982. Shulamit Ran Ran, an award-winning composer, has been named the William H. Colvin Professor. She was awarded a 1991 Pulitzer Prize for music composition for "Symphony," which also won first prize at the 1992 Kennedy Center Friedman Awards. In October, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed the world premiere of Ran's composition "Legends," which was commissioned in honor of the centennials of the University and the CSO. Ran is composer-in-residence with the CSO and was the first woman to be appointed composer-in-residence of a major American orchestra. A faculty member in Music, she has taught composition at the University since 1973.

    Robert Townsend Townsend, who is a specialist on risk and on methods societies use to protect themselves against risks, has been appointed the Charles E. Merriam Professor. Townsend is a faculty member in Economics. Among his recent publications is the book "Financial Structure and Economic Organization: Key Elements and Patterns in Theory and History" (1990). He joined the faculty in 1985.