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Remembered

Cynthia Russett ’64PhD, a historian of American women, died December 5 of multiple myeloma. She was 76 years old. The Larned Professor of History, Russett joined the Yale faculty in 1967 as a lecturer, and became a full professor in 1990. Along with her teaching and scholarship in women’s history and nineteenth- and twentieth-century intellectual history, she championed the careers of other female scholars. She was married to Yale political science professor Bruce Russett ’61PhD.

Political scientist Juan Linz died on October 1 at the age of 86. Linz, a Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political and Social Science, was born in Germany but raised in Spain. He came to Yale as a professor in 1968. A scholar of comparative government and sociology, Linz was best known for his analysis of presidential and parliamentary forms of democratic government, laid out in a 1990 paper called “The Perils of Presidentialism.”

William Foltz ’63PhD, the political science professor who helped develop the African studies program at Yale, died on October 27. He was 77. Foltz, the H. J. Heinz Professor Emeritus of African Studies and Political Science, joined the faculty in 1963. He was director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (now the MacMillan Center) from 1983 to 1989. He retired in 2005 but continued to teach and advise students.

Gustav Ranis ’56PhD, an expert in international developmental economics, died on October 15. He was 83 years old. Ranis, a native of Germany, joined the Yale faculty in 1960 and retired in 2005 as the Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics. He was director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies from 1995 to 2004, and he twice served as director of the Economic Growth Center.

Honored

Seven Yale graduates will travel to the United Kingdom next year as Rhodes Scholars and Marshall Scholars. Isabel Beshar ’14, Suzanna Fritzberg ’14, and Vinay Nayak ’14 were the Yale students among the 32 American Rhodes Scholarship winners. Among this year’s 34 Marshall winners are Alyssa Bilinski ’13, Tantum “Teddy” Collins ’13, Natalia Emanuel ’13, and Derek Park ’13.

Appointed

Biologist Christine Jacobs-Wagner has been named director of the Microbial Diversity Institute at Yale’s West Campus. Jacobs-Wagner, a professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and microbial pathogenesis, will oversee an interdisciplinary effort to better understand microbes and their role in how other living organisms function. With her appointment, all six of the recently created West Campus–based research institutes now have directors.