More news of Yale people

Remembered

Abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler, who taught at Yale in the 1960s, died in her Connecticut home on December 27. She was 83. Frankenthaler was a pioneer of color field painting, a practice that allows "pigments to soak into the canvas rather than to rest on top of it" and that she first used in Mountains and Sea. At Yale, Frankenthaler was the first woman elected a fellow of Calhoun College, in 1968. She was awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from Yale in 1981.

Honored

Meg Urry, Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy and chair of Yale's physics department, has won the American Astronomical Society's 2012 George Van Biesbroeck Prize for her "tireless efforts to enhance the participation of women in astronomy and other scientific disciplines." The prize is awarded annually for extraordinary service to astronomy.

Appointed

Jeanie O'Hare, who has been the dramaturg for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) since 2005, has been appointed chair of the playwriting department at the School of Drama. Though not a playwright herself, O'Hare has worked on collaborations with playwrights worldwide, and she helpedintroduce the works of more living playwrights into the RSC's repertoire. She succeeds Paula Vogel, who will continue to teach at the school.

Returning

After nearly three years working in the Obama administration, Paul Anastas returned to campus in February to resume his role as director of the university's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. Anastas, who is frequently called the "father of green chemistry," worked as assistant administrator and science adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, where he advocated an emphasis on sustainability in the EPA.