More news of Yale people

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Appointed

Anthony Smith (left), the William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Economics and professor of management, is the new dean of social science for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as of January 1. Smith, who specializes in macroeconomics, econometrics, and environmental economics, has taught at Yale since 2003. 

Grete Pedersen, a Norwegian choral conductor and professor, joined the Institute of Sacred Music in January as professor in the practice of conducting and principal conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum. Pedersen taught at the Norwegian Academy of Music for more than 30 years; she directed the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir for 35 years. Schola Cantorum is the institute’s chamber choir, open by audition to students across the university. 

Yale College dean Pericles Lewis will give this year's DeVane Lectures in the fall, offering a modified version of a course he has taught before called Purposes of a College Education. The Devane Lectures, established in 1969, comprise a course that Yale students can take for credit; they are also open to the public. 

Courtesy Stephanie Spangler

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Remembered

Robert Shulman (left), Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, died on January 11. He was 101 years old. A pioneer in the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a means of understanding metabolism and its role in medical disorders, Shulman was a professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine from 1979 until his retirement in 2002. A man of broad interests, he was one of the first fellows of the Whitney Humanities Center. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie Spangler, vice provost for health affairs and academic integrity; sons Mark Shulman ’85 and James Shulman ’87, ’93PhD; and three grandchildren.  

Stephen R. Anderson, the Dorothy R. Diebold Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and professor of psychology and cognitive science, died on October 13. He was 82. Anderson, who taught at Yale from 1994 to 2017, studied how words are formed and how language relates to cognition. In 2004, he published Doctor Dolittle's Delusion, a book arguing that while other animals communicate, they do not have languages as we understand them. His course on animal communication was popular with students.

Retiring

Stephen Murphy ’87, who has been Yale’s vice president for finance and chief financial officer since 2015, will retire from the university in June. An economics major at Yale, Murphy spent 14 years in the private sector before returning to the university as director of finance and administration for the Office of Cooperative Research. He served in four other positions at Yale before being named CFO. 

Honored

Two Yale seniors will pursue graduate study in the United Kingdom next year as recipients of Marshall Scholarships: Isabel Rancu ’26 of Anderson, South Carolina; and Karinne Tennenbaum ’26 of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Also going abroad next year—as Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China—are two graduating students and one recent alumnus: Aleena Gul ’26; Pranav Pattatathunaduvil ’25, ’26MPP, a student in the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs’ BA/MPP program; and Jordan Van Doren ’25.