More news about Yale people

Robert A. Lisak

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Appointed

Gary Desir ’80MD (left) has been appointed vice provost for faculty development and diversity. Desir, who will continue in his role as chair of the internal medicine department at the School of Medicine, has long been a champion of faculty diversity in the medical school. A native of Haiti, he was the first person of African descent to head a department at the school.

Alan Gerber ’86 will become director of Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) in July, succeeding Jacob S. Hacker ’00PhD. Gerber, the Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of Political Science, studies American politics; he is also the dean of social science. The ISPS brings together faculty and students from different disciplines in the social sciences for interdisciplinary research.

Honored

Three women from Yale’s astronomy faculty are among the inaugural fellows of the American Astronomical Society: Sarbani Basu, professor and chair of the astronomy department; Debra Fischer, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy; and Meg Urry, the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy. The honor recognizes “extraordinary achievement and service.”

Eight writers have been honored with the 2020 Windham-Campbell Prize, an award administered by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. This year’s winners in fiction are Yiyun Li (United States) and Namwali Serpell (US/Zambia); in nonfiction, Maria Tumarkin (Australia) and Anne Boyer (US); in poetry, Bhanu Kapil (United Kingdom/US) and Jonah Mixon-Webster (US); and in drama, Julia Cho (US) and Aleshea Harris (US).