The Princeton University Board of Trustees has approved the appointments of 26 faculty members, including four full professors, one associate professor, 20 assistant professors and a senior lecturer.
Professor
Atif Mian, in economics and public affairs, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012, from the University of California-Berkeley, where he has been a faculty member since 2009. He previously taught at the University of Chicago.
Mian's research focuses on links between financial markets and the macroeconomy. His work emphasizes the role played by political, governance and organizational constraints in shaping the effectiveness and scope of financial markets. He has published widely on topics such as the origins of the global financial crisis, the political economy of government intervention in financial markets, and the link between asset prices, household borrowing and consumption. Mian holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Sophie Morel, in mathematics, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. She has been a professor at Harvard University since 2009 and also has served as a member of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Previously, she had been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a research fellow at the Clay Mathematics Institute.
Morel is a specialist in number theory, algebraic geometry and representation theory. Her work focuses on the Langlands problem, an area of number theory and representation theory that has been of great interest to mathematicians in recent decades. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, Morel holds a Ph.D. from the Université Paris-Sud.
Eve Ostriker, in astrophysical sciences, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. Her interests are in theoretical and computational astrophysics, including: the formation of stars and planets; dynamics and thermodynamics of the interstellar medium; the structure and evolution of spiral galaxies; astrophysical turbulence; and numerical models for hydrodynamics.
Ostriker will come to Princeton from the University of Maryland, where she has been on the faculty since 1996. She previously was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California-Berkeley, where she earned her Ph.D. She is a graduate of Harvard.
Andreas Wimmer will join the faculty as the Hughes-Rogers Professor of Sociology on July 1, 2012. Wimmer's research aims to understand the dynamics of nation-state formation, ethnic boundary-making and political conflict from a comparative perspective. He has conducted fieldwork in Mexico and Iraq, and has engaged in interdisciplinary research projects that cross into political science and social anthropology. His books include "Nationalist Exclusion and Ethnic Conflicts: Shadows of Modernity" and the forthcoming "Waves of War."
Wimmer has been a faculty member at the University of California-Los Angeles since 2003. He previously taught at the University of Bonn, the University of Neuchâtel and the University of Zurich, where he earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees.
Associate professor
Erika Milam, in history, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. Milam is a historian of science who specializes in the history of the life sciences and the animal-human boundary. Her interests include evolutionary biology, gender and science, the connection between the natural and social sciences, and the history of science through science fiction. She is the author of "Looking for a Few Good Males: Female Choice in Evolutionary Biology."
Milam will come to Princeton from the University of Maryland, where she has taught since 2008. She previously was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and a lecturer at Clemson University. A graduate of Carleton College, she holds a master's degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Assistant professor
The following appointments are for three-year terms, except where noted:
Alin Coman, in psychology and public affairs, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. A specialist in collective memory, Coman is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. A graduate of Babes-Bolyai University, he holds a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research.
Javier Guerrero, in Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. A postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence University, he focuses on contemporary Latin American film and literature. Guerrero earned a bachelor's degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, a master's degree from the Universidad Simón Bolivar and a Ph.D. from New York University.
Liora Halperin, in Near Eastern studies, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. Halperin specializes in the social and cultural history of Israel. She is a graduate of Harvard and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California-Los Angeles.
Tod Hamilton, in sociology, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. A specialist in demography and immigration, he is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. Hamilton holds a bachelor's degree from Xavier University, a master's degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas-Austin.
Brian Herrera, in theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. He is currently a faculty member at the University of New Mexico, where he earned a master's degree. He holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a Ph.D. from Yale University. Herrera focuses on performance history.
Greg Kaplan, in economics, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. A macroeconomist, he is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and previously was an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Kaplan is a graduate of Macquarie University, and holds a master's degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from New York University.
Matthew Karp, in history, will join the faculty on July 1, 2013. A specialist in U.S. history, he is an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Ph.D. Karp is a graduate of Amherst College.
Ning Lin, in civil and environmental engineering, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. Lin earned her Ph.D. from Princeton in 2010 and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a bachelor's degree from Huazong University of Science and Technology and a master's degree from Texas Tech University. Her fields of specialization are mechanics, materials, structures and storm hazards.
Mariangela Lisanti, in physics, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2013. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton, focusing on theoretical and experimental physics. Lisanti is a graduate of Harvard and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Han Liu, in operations research and financial engineering, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. A specialist in statistics, Liu is a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University. He received a bachelor's degree from the Harbin Institute of Technology, a master's degree from the University of Tokyo and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon.
Rosina Lozano, in history, will join the faculty on Aug. 1, 2013. A specialist in Latino/Latina history, she holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford, a master's degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.
Sucharit Sarkar, in mathematics, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. He is a faculty member at Columbia University, focusing on topology. A graduate of the Indian Statistical Institute, Sarkar earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2009.
Teresa Shawcross, in history, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. Currently a faculty member at Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges, she previously was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton. Shawcross focuses on later Byzantine history. She is a graduate of Université de Paris III-Sorbonne and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford.
Irene Small, in art and archaeology, will join the faculty on Aug. 1, 2012. A specialist in contemporary art and criticism, she is a faculty member at the University of Illinois. Small is a graduate of Brown and holds a Ph.D. from Yale.
Alexander Sodin, in mathematics, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. A specialist in analysis, he is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study. Sodin holds a bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University.
Jack Tannous, in history, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. Tannous, who studies the late antiquity period, earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2010 and is a postdoctoral fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks research library and museum. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas and a master's degree from Oxford.
Corina Tarnita, in ecology and evolutionary biology, will join the faculty on Nov. 1, 2012, for a term of three and a half years. A specialist in theoretical biology, she is a junior fellow at Harvard, where she earned her bachelor's and doctoral degrees.
Jordan Taylor, in psychology, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. A cognitive psychologist, he is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California-Berkeley. He holds a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from Washington University.
Vlad Vicol, in mathematics, will join the faculty on Sept. 1, 2012. He is an instructor at the University of Chicago, focusing on nonlinear partial differential equations. Vicol is a graduate of Jacobs University and holds a Ph.D. from USC.
Mooly Vidas, in religion and Judaic studies, will join the faculty on July 1, 2012. A graduate of Tel Aviv University, he holds a master's degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2009. He is a faculty member at the University of California-Davis, focusing on classical Judaism.
Senior lecturer
Jing Wang, in East Asian studies, will join the faculty for a three-year term on Sept. 1, 2012.
