International leaders in the fields of philosophy and history, public health, neuroscience and biophysics, and Eastern European history and politics will visit Princeton for terms starting in the academic years 2012-13 and 2013-14 in the University's Global Scholars Program.
The program, overseen by the Council for International Teaching and Research, brings some of the world's top scholars to Princeton to teach, conduct research, participate in workshops and give public presentations. A key goal of the program is to build ties between Princeton and other leading academic institutions around the world for opportunities such as research collaboration and faculty and student exchanges.
The three Global Scholars named for 2012-13 are: Adam Michnik, hosted by the Department of History, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society; Dominik Perler, hosted by the departments of philosophy and religion, and the Program in Medieval Studies; and Tung Global Scholar Tong Zhu, hosted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Wilson School and the Princeton Environmental Institute. In addition, Rava Azeredo de Silveira has been named a Global Scholar for 2013-14, hosted by the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.
One other 2012-13 Global Scholar was previously announced: Donnacha Dennehy, hosted by the Department of Music. In total, 15 Global Scholars have been named since the program's inception.
The following is more information on the newly appointed Global Scholars:
Michnik, editor-in-chief of Poland's largest newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, is one of Eastern Europe's most prominent political thinkers. He is a historian, essayist and former dissident, and he played a role in the country's democratic transition as he was elected a member of Parliament in 1989. He also was a visiting professor at Princeton in 2005-06. This year at Princeton, Michnik will co-teach a course on the communist era and transition to democratic politics in Central Europe. He will also give a public lecture on the future of the European Union and participate in events sponsored by the European politics and society program and the Wilson School.
Perler, a professor of philosophy at Humboldt University in Berlin, is a distinguished historian of medieval and early-modern thought. He is a prolific writer and editor who has published in English and German. At Princeton, Perler will work across humanities departments to expand international collaboration. He will advance the joint humanities graduate program with Humboldt University and expand ties to include the religion department and medieval studies program.
Zhu, the Cheung Kong Chair Professor in the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Peking University, is a global leader in research on air pollution's impact on public health and on mitigation strategies. He directs the university's Center for Environment and Health, serves as the principal investigator for more than 20 research projects and has published extensively. At Princeton, Zhu will teach and conduct research on impacts of air pollution on health in China and effects on climate through the Wilson School's Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy; and he will work to expand global research in the civil and environmental engineering department and Princeton Environmental Institute. He will also strengthen international links to China by hosting Princeton students in Beijing during field research trips and by coordinating further collaboration.
Azeredo da Silveira, a faculty member in the physics department at École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris and a researcher at Centre National de le Recherche Scientifique, is a leading figure in theoretical neuroscience and the modeling of complex systems. Last year, he was the Princeton Neuroscience Institute's first C.V. Starr Visiting Fellow, collaborating on research with faculty and students and supervising student exchanges between Princeton and ENS. He will deepen these relationships and expand opportunities for student exchanges when he returns in 2013-14.
