Head of the Class

TOP PROFS: Three School of Humanities and Sciences faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences: Robert Byer, MS '67, PhD '69, a professor of applied physics who holds 35 patents and works with lasers and nonlinear optics, George Papanicolaou, professor of mathematics and author of more than 150 articles and papers on applied mathematics and probability theory, and Leonard Susskind, professor of physics and co-developer, with Y. Nambu of the University of Chicago, of the string theory, which holds that the building blocks of the universe are unimaginably small, vibrating strings.

NEW CHAIRS: The School of Humanities and Sciences announced six new endowed chairs in spring quarter. Steven Boxer, an expert on the effects of magnetic fields on chemical reactions, is now the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor in Chemistry. Wanda Corn, who last year published The Great American Thing: Modern Art and American Identity, 1915-35, is the first Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor of Art. Arnold Eisen, a leader in modern Jewish thought, is the new Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion. Michael Fayer, who studies the properties of complex molecular systems, such as liquids, glasses, proteins, polymeric solids and supercritical fluids, is the David Mulvane Ehrsam and Edward Curtis Franklin Professor of Chemistry. Brian Ferneyhough, a leader of the "new Complexity" movement who joined the faculty last year, has been named the William H. Bonsall Professor of Music. Robert Waymouth, a leading organometallic and polymer chemist of his generation, is the Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry.