List of Brown University People - Notable Faculty (Current and Former)

Notable Faculty (Current and Former)

• Chinua Achebe

Nigerian novelist, poet, professor and critic. Author of Things Fall Apart, the most widely read book in modern African literature.

David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies

• Ama Ata Aidoo

Ghanaian novelist and playwright

Visiting Professor of Africana Studies and Literary Arts

• Susan E. Alcock

Archaeologist, MacArthur Award recipient

Professor of Classics, Director of the Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World

• Nancy Armstrong

literary critic and author of Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel

Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Comparative Literature, English, Modern Culture & Media, and Gender Studies

• Thomas Banchoff

American mathematician specializing in geometry. He is very well known for his research in differential geometry in three and four dimensions.

Professor of Mathematics

• Mark F.Bear (Ph.D, Brown University)

neuroscientist. Author of one of the world's most widely used neuroscience introductory textbooks. Since 2003, the head of the MIT Brain Lab. Part of the 10-member jury, the Champalimaud Vision Award, bestowed by the Champalimaud Foundation.

• David Berson

discovered third photoreceptor in the eye (in addition to rods and cones)

Professor of Medical Science, Associate Professor of Neuroscience

• Tracy Breton

winner of the Pulitzer Prize 1994 for investigative reporting

Visiting Professor of English

• Fernando Henrique Cardoso

former president of Brazil

Professor-at-large of International Studies

• Lincoln Chafee (A.B. 1975)

former Republican member of the United States Senate

Distinguished Visiting Fellow in International Relations

• Roderick Chisholm (~1999)

famous philosopher known for his contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, free will, and the philosophy of perception; influenced a generation of Brown philosophers including Jaegwon Kim and Ernest Sosa, two of the world's most famous philosophers.

• Jarat Chopra

international lawyer, father of peacekeeping doctrine since the Cold War

Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies faculty member

• Leon Neil Cooper

Nobel Prize in Physics 1972; father of superconductivity, and developer of the BCM theory of synaptic plasticity in neuroscience

Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Physics

• Robert Coover

post-modern writer, Spanking the Maid, The Origin of the Brunists; notable for his metafiction; electronic literature pioneer

T. B. Stowell University Professor, Adjunct Professor of English

• Robert Creeley

celebrated poet, For Love

Professor of English

• Philip J. Davis

applied mathematician and philosopher of mathematics; co-author of The Mathematical Experience

Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics

• Anne DeGroot

medical researcher developing vaccines for infectious diseases including HIV, TB, West Nile virus, smallpox, and tularemia

'Associate Professor of Community Health

• John Donoghue (Ph.D. 1979)

founder of Cyberkinetics, a company that won FDA approval to test brain/robot interfaces (such as BrainGate) on humans

Professor and Chair of Neuroscience

• David Dosa

geriatrician, author of "A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat", the New England Journal of Medicine article which described the purported abilities of Oscar the cat to predict imminent death.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

• Daniel C. Drucker(~2001)

an authority on the theory of plasticity in the field of applied mechanics; recipient of the National Medal of Science, the Timoshenko Medal, the ASME Medal, and the Drucker Medal, of which he is the namesake.

• Curt Ducasse(~1966)

philosopher noted for philosophy of mind and aesthetics; influenced Roderick Chisholm; former president of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division.

• David F. Duncan

epidemiologist and addictionologist, author of "Drugs and the Whole Person"

Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine

• Peter D. Eimas

Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences

• Anne Fausto-Sterling

a major contributor to the fields of sexology, biology of gender, sexual identity, gender identity, and gender roles.

• Carlos Fuentes

writer; widely considered the most influential author of the Spanish speaking world since Jorge Luis Borges

• Oded Galor

economist studying economic growth; developer of the Unified growth theory.

Herbert H.Goldberger Professor of Economics

• Forrest Gander

poet, author of Eye Against Eye, Torn Awake, Whiting Writers' Award and Howard Foundation Award winner

Professor of English and Comparative Literature

• Ulf Grenander

mathematician, originator of the Pattern Theory in mathematics, which also influenced David Mumford

L.Herbert Ballou University Professor

• Gerald Guralnik

physicist; (co-)discoverer of the Higgs mechanism, Sakurai Prize winner

Chancellor's Professor of Physics

• Peter Howitt (economist)

economist, co-originator of the Schumpeterian Paradigm with Philippe Aghion

• Michael S. Harper

poet; first Poet Laureate of the State of Rhode Island

Professor of English

• James Head (Ph.D. 1969)

planetary geologist who trained Apollo astronauts and led imaging teams for NASA's interplanetary unmanned probes, from the Viking program to Mars

Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences

• Dwight B. Heath

anthropologist, foremost anthropological researcher and scholar in field of alcohol studies.

Research Professor of Anthropology

• Richard Holbrooke (A.B. 1962)

broker of the Dayton Accords; former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

Professor-at-Large of International Studies

• Stephen Houston

archeologist, expert on Mayan hieroglyphics, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship

Professor of Anthropology

• David Kertzer

historian, anthropologist, author of The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and Prisoner of the Vatican

Provost, Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor of Italian Studies

• Sergei Khrushchev

son of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev

Senior Fellow in International Studies

• Jaegwon Kim

philosopher of mind, action theorist, author of Mind in a Physical World

William Herbert Perry Faunce Professor of Philosophy

• John M. Kosterlitz

of The Kosterlitz-Thouless transition (Condensed Matter Physics); winner of the 1981 Maxwell Medal and Prize, and the 2000 Onsager Prize (one of the APS main awards)

Professor of Physics

• Peter D. Kramer

author, Listening to Prozac, Against Depression

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

• Charles Kraus

Achieved chemist who was consultant for the Manhattan Project and won the Priestley Medal and Franklin Medal.

• Hans Kurath

linguist; known for publishing the first linguistic atlas of the US Linguistic Atlas of New England, winning the Loubat Prize, and for being the first main editor of the Middle English Dictionary

• Ricardo Lagos

former president of Chile

Professor-at-large of International Studies

• George Lamming

Barbadian author, "In the Castle of My Skin", "Natives of My Person"

Visiting Professor of Africana Studies and Literary Arts

• Ross Levine

Advisor to the United States Treasury, Federal Reserve System, and World Bank; highly cited economist, ranked 10th in the world, according to RePEc

James and Merryl Tisch Professor of Economics

• David C. Lewis

addictions specialist and authority on drug policy

Donald G. Miller Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and Addiction

• Glenn Loury

Once regarded as 'one of the most prominent black conservatives in the nation' now considered much more 'progressive.'

Professor of Economics

• Peter MacAvoy

former member of the US Council of Economic Advisers

• Kenneth R. Miller (Sc.B. 1970)

supporter of evolution involved in numerous public debates and trials about the teaching of intelligent design in schools

Professor of Biology

• Hyman Minsky(~1996)

economist that researched into financial market fragility; his theories are considered the most accurate description of the financial crisis; namesake of the Minsky moment

• James Morone

noted political scientist for his work on health politics, popular participation, morality in politics, and on political development

• David Mumford

Fields Medal winning mathematician, MacArthur Fellow

Professor of Applied Mathematics

• Ron Nelson

composer

Professor of Music (retired)

• Otto Neugebauer

historian of mathematics

Professor of the History of Mathematics

• Katsumi Nomizu

coauthor of Foundations of Differential Geometry (1963, 1969)

Professor of Mathematics (1960–1995)

• Martha Nussbaum

philosopher, authored The Fragility of Goodness while teaching at Brown

Professor of Philosophy (1985~1995)

• Lars Onsager

Norwegian-born physicist who taught at Brown (1928–1933); Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1968 awarded for Onsager reciprocal relations, produced while at Brown but was not tenured.

• Paul Phillips (conductor)

conductor, composer, and world's leading scholar on the music of author Anthony Burgess.

Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music

• David Pingree

Professor of the History of Mathematics and of Classics, MacArthur Fellow (1981)

• William Poole

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis (1998–Present); Served on Reagan's White House Council of Economic Advisors

Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics (1974–1998)

• Kurt Raaflaub

Professor of Classics and History

• Robert Scholes

President, Modern Language Association; author, The Rise and Fall of English; co-author, The Nature of Narrative

Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus of Modern Culture and Media

• Robert Sedgewick

author of well-known computer science book Algorithms; board of directors, Adobe Systems

Professor of Computer Science (1975~85)

• Vernon L. Smith

Nobel Prize in Economics, for developing empirical and scientific methods into economic research.

• George Snell

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for discovering the genetic bases of immunological reactions

Teacher in Biology (1930~1931)

• Joseph H. Silverman

Number theorist, co-founder of NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc.

Professor of Mathematics

• Ernest Sosa

philosopher, epistemologist

• George Stigler

Nobel Prize in Economics, on the influence of government regulation on the economy

Professor of Economics (1946~1947)

• William J. Suggs

co-discoverer of PCC (pyridinium chlorochromate), nick-named in Organic Chemistry as 'Corey's reagent'

• Leslie Thornton

experimental filmmaker, Peggy and Fred in Hell

Professor of Modern Culture and Media

• Dom Illtyd Trethowan

philosopher

Visiting Professor in Theology

• Andries "Andy" van Dam

computer graphics and hypertext pioneer, and co-founder of ACM SICGRAPH, precursor to SIGGRAPH

Thomas J. Watson, Jr. University Professor of Technology and Education,

Professor of Computer Science, former (and first) Vice President for Research

• Paula Vogel

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, How I Learned to Drive

Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor of English

• Xu Wenli

founder of the Chinese Democratic Party

Visiting Senior Fellow in International Studies

• Darrell M. West

author of multiple books including Digital Government and Cross Talk; developer of website www.InsidePolitics.org; vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution

John Hazen White Professor of Public Policy and Political Science and director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy

• John Edgar Wideman

writer (two time PEN/Faulkner Award winner), Philadelphia Fire

Asa Messer Professor and Professor of Africana Studies and Literary Arts

• Gordon S. Wood

Pulitzer Prize for History winner, The Radicalism of the American Revolution

Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History

• C. D. Wright

poet, String Light; Macarthur fellowship winner (2004)

Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English

• Charles Larmore

political philosopher, formerly a professor at the University of Chicago School of Law, famous for critique of Rawlsian liberalism.

Duncan Macmillian Professor of Philosophy

• Lucy Spelman (A.B. 1985)

famous primatologist, former director of the Washington Zoo and editor of The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes

• Hilary Silver - Sociologist