Graduate School honors four alumni and former dean
The Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will award Wilbur Cross Medals, the school’s highest honor, to five outstanding academicians on Tuesday, Oct. 5.
This year’s honorees are four alumni of the Graduate School — literary scholar Stephen Greenblatt, political scientist Fred I. Greenstein, molecular biologist Timothy J. Richmond and biochemist Paul Wender — and former Graduate School Dean Jon Butler.
Each of the alumni medalists will present a lecture on Oct. 5. All the talks are free and open to the public. The topics, times and locations follow:
• “Shakespearean Autonomy” by Greenblatt, 4 p.m., Rm. 102 Linsly-Chittenden Hall (LC), 63 High St. Sponsored by the Department of English.
• “The Study of Political Psychology: An Autobiographical Perspective” by Greenstein, noon, Rm. A001, Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS), 77 Prospect St. Sponsored by ISPS.
• “Structure and Mechanism of the Chromatin Remodeling Factor ISW1a” by Richmond, 4 p.m., Rm. 110, Jane Ellen Hope Building, 315 Cedar St. Sponsored by the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.
• “Nature’s Inspirations: First-in-Class Molecular Approaches to the Eradication of HIV/AIDS, Treating Alzheimer’s Disease, and Overcoming Resistant Cancer,” by Wender, 4 p.m., Rm. 110, Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, 225 Prospect St. Sponsored by the Department of Chemistry.
Brief biographies of the 2010 Wilbur Cross Medalists follow:
Stephen Greenblatt, who earned his B.A. from Yale in 1964 and his Ph.D. in 1969 in English, is the Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. One of the world’s leading literary scholar-critics in the “New Historicism,” he is author of 13 books, including “Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare,” which has been translated into many languages. Greenblatt is general editor of “The Norton Shakespeare” and “The Norton Anthology of English Literature,” 8th edition, and former president of the Modern Languages Association.
Fred I. Greenstein, professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University, earned his Ph.D. in political science from Yale in 1960. He has been a leader in establishing the field of political psychology. His books include “Leadership in the Modern Presidency” and the eight-volume “Handbook of Political Science” (with Nelson W. Polsby). Greenstein served as the director of the Program in Leadership Studies at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and was president of the International Society for Political Psychology.
Timothy J. Richmond is a professor at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale in 1975. His research in molecular biology explores the atomic structure of large macromolecular assemblies, using both X-ray crystallographic and biochemical approaches. His many honors include membership in the Academia Europae and the National Academy of Sciences.
Paul Wender is the Francis W. Bergstrom Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and a leader in the field of “green chemistry” — environmentally responsible chemistry. He was awarded his Ph.D. from Yale in 1973. He is a pre-eminent architect of complex molecule assembly, used to produce taxol and other molecules with medical applications. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has also won teaching prizes at Stanford.
Jon Butler, who served as dean of the Graduate School for six years, is the Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History and Religious Studies at Yale. He grew up in rural Minnesota and earned his B.A. (1964) and Ph.D. (1972) from the University of Minnesota. His books include “Power, Authority, and the Origins of American Denominational Order”; “The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society,” which won the Soloutos Prize and the Chinard Prize; “Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People,” which won the Outler Prize and the AHA Beveridge Award for Best Book in American History; “Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776”; and “Religion in American Life: A Short History,” co-authored with Grant Wacker and Randall Balmer, as well as many articles and reviews.
Media Contact
Dorie Baker: dorie.baker@yale.edu, 203-432-1345