School Notes: Faculty of Arts & Sciences
January/February 2018

Heyman and Greer Prizes honor FAS faculty

Noreen Khawaja, associate professor of religious studies, was awarded the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication for The Religion of Existence: Asceticism in Philosophy from Kierkegaard to Sartre. Khawaja is a scholar of modern European intellectual history; her prize-winning book explores the writings of Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre to shed new light on the history of existentialism. Proficient in seven languages, Khawaja is also a gifted artist and screenwriter. Khawaja teaches courses on topics and figures in modern European thought, including: existentialism, religion and enlightenment, and authenticity.

Joseph Shapiro, assistant professor of economics, was recognized with the Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication, for his economic work on air pollution and climate change. An environmental and energy economist, Shapiro’s research examines the interactions among regulation, trade, and the environment. “Globalization and the environment are both front-page issues,” he said, “which makes studying their interactions especially exciting.” A native of Oregon, Shapiro grew up surrounded by debates about the protection of local ecology that informed his interest in studying the environment. At Yale, Shapiro teaches an undergraduate course on international environmental economics which features a tour of Yale’s central power plant.

David Poland, associate professor of physics, received the Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Research, for his work in theoretical elementary particle physics. Poland uses modern mathematical techniques to study phase transitions in unusual states of matter with significant implications for the understanding of magnetism and fluids. Poland’s previous honors include selection for the Simons Collaborations in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences, and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. In his spare time Poland is a gifted pianist. Poland teaches courses on the fundamentals of physics, electromagnetic fields and optics, special topics in particle theory, relativistic field theory, and classical mechanics.