More news of Yale people

George Garvin

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Remembered

Alexander Garvin ’62, ’67MArch (left), an urban planning expert who taught at Yale for more than 50 years, died on December 17 in Manhattan. He was 80. A lifelong New Yorker, Garvin worked as a planner there under five different mayors and as a consultant in several other cities. He also wrote books and led the planning for New York City’s bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. At Yale, Garvin was an adjunct professor at the School of Architecture; he taught a popular undergraduate course called Study of the City, which introduced generations of students to his pragmatic approach to urban planning, design, and politics.

Mary Li Hsu ’80, who served as an assistant dean of Yale College and director of the Asian American Cultural Center from 1992 to 1999, died on November 8 of neuroendocrine cancer. She was 63 years old. As an undergraduate, Hsu had been an active member of the Asian American Students Association, which was instrumental in the founding of the cultural center in 1981. Last year, an endowment fund in her name was established to support the center’s activities and academic offerings in Asian American studies.

Appointed

In January, President Peter Salovey ’86PhD announced the appointment of Maurie Mcinnis ’96PhD and Marta Lourdes Tellado ’02PhD as new members of Yale’s Board of Trustees. McInnis, a historian, has been president of Stony Brook University since 2020. Tellado, who studied political science at Yale, has been president and CEO of Consumer Reports since 2014. They succeed Gina Raimondo ’98JD and Lei Zhang ’02MA, ’02MBA, on the board.

The deans of three of Yale’s professional schools have been reappointed recently to new five-year terms beginning July 1: James Bundy ’95MFA, dean of the drama school (now the David Geffen School of Drama) since 2002; Heather Gerken, dean of the Law School since 2017; and Gregory Sterling, dean of the Divinity School since 2012.

Stepping Down

Yale College dean Marvin Chun announced in January that he will step down from the deanship when his term ends in June and return to teaching and research. Chun, who is the Richard M. Colgate Professor of Psychology and a professor of neuroscience and cognitive science, said in a message to the Yale College community that he needed to prioritize his laboratory work. President Peter Salovey ’86PhD said in a statement that he has begun the process of choosing Chun’s successor.

Honored

The Graduate School Alumni Association will award the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal—given annually for “outstanding work in scholarship, public service, teaching, or academic administration”—to four alumni in October. The awardees are: anthropologist Virginia Rosa Dominguez ’73, ’79PhD, of the University of Illinois; music theorist Philip Ewell ’01PhD of Hunter College; geneticist Sarah Tishkoff ’96PhD of the University of Pennsylvania; and electrical engineer Che-Chia Wei ’85PhD of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Yale students and recent graduates will study abroad next year on Marshall, Schwarzman, and Churchill Scholarships. Marshall recipients for study in the United Kingdom are rohit goyal ’19 and akhil rajan ’21, ’21MA. Schwarzman Scholars, who will study at Tsinghua University in Beijing, are Jasper Boers ’22, Sharmaine Koh Mingli ’22, Liam Arnade-Colwill ’19, and William Ge ’17. Churchill Scholars, who will study at the University of Cambridge, are megan he ’22, Sarah Zhao ’22, and James Diao ’18.