 Carol Folt
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 Andrew Friedland
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 James Haxby. Folt, Friedland, and Haxby are inaugural
holders of the Dartmouth Professorship of Biological Sciences, the Richard and
Jane Pearl Professorship in Environmental Studies, and the Evans Family
Distinguished Professorship, respectively. (Haxby photo courtesy James Haxby,
all others by Joseph Mehling ’69)
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Three families have made gifts totaling $10 million to support Dartmouth’s
academic enterprise, endowing professorships that will enable the institution
to continue to attract and retain top faculty and strengthen teaching and
research in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The professors appointed to these
new chairs are prominent scholars in the fields of psychological and brain
sciences, environmental studies, and the biological sciences.
The Evans Family Distinguished Professorship was endowed with a gift from
Barbara and Brad Evans, a Dartmouth Trustee and member of the Class of 1964. It
will be held by James Haxby, who investigates the human brain systems that
control visual perception, attention, and memory. Haxby will join the Dartmouth
faculty in January 2008. He comes to Dartmouth from Princeton University where
he was a professor in the department of psychology since 2003. Previously, he
was section chief for the Section on Functional Brain Imaging at the National
Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md. His Ph.D. is from the University of
Minnesota.
Carol Folt, dean of the Faculty of
Arts and Sciences, has been appointed to the Dartmouth Professorship of Biological Sciences, created by
an anonymous donor. She is also associate director of Dartmouth’s Superfund
Basic Research Program, entering its second decade as an interdisciplinary
science program that brings together faculty and students from Dartmouth Medical School and the arts and
sciences. An environmental biologist, she studies mercury bioaccumulation in
aquatic food webs, salmonid conservation, and gene-environment interactions in
lake biota. Folt earned her Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis
and has been a member of the Dartmouth faculty since 1983.
A $2.5 million gift from Jane and Richard Pearl, a member of the Class of
1954 and a 1955 graduate of the Tuck
School of Business, endows the Richard and Jane Pearl Professorship in Environmental Studies. It will be
held by Andrew Friedland, whose interdisciplinary research explores the effects
of atmospheric pollutants on high-elevation forests, and the impacts of
individual choices on energy use and the environment. Friedland is the chair of
the Environmental Studies Program, and one of the founders of the
multidisciplinary graduate Program in Earth, Ecosystem, and Ecological
Sciences. He joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1987 after receiving his Ph.D.
from the University of Pennsylvania.
Since 1998 Dartmouth has added 55 faculty positions in the Faculty of the
Arts and Sciences, bringing the total number to 411 and reducing the College’s
student-faculty ratio from 10:1 to 8:1. This has enabled growth in departments
where student enrollments have been steadily increasing and where expansion
into emerging fields is necessary to keep the curriculum at the cutting edge of
knowledge and relevant for today’s students. The faculty positions have been
funded through the reallocation of existing resources and gifts through the Campaign for the Dartmouth
Experience.
“The quality of an institution is profoundly shaped by its faculty.
Substantial growth in the faculty has been one of my highest priorities, and
I’m grateful to these families for giving us the resources to recognize
outstanding teaching and scholarship,” says Dartmouth President James Wright. “It gives
me special pleasure to award, with the enthusiastic approval of the Faculty
Committee Advisory to the President, one of these new professorships to our
dean of faculty, Carol Folt. Dean Folt continues a vital research program and
advises many students, even as she leads the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.”
Other new endowed chairs that have been publicly announced include the
Sherman Fairchild Professorships in Emerging Fields, the Neukom Professorship
in Computational Science, the Clements Professorship in Politics and Democracy,
and the Hansen Professorship for teaching and scholarship.
“The quality of a Dartmouth education is defined by the minds and
discoveries of our faculty and the innovation and opportunity their
scholarship, commitment, and energy bring to our students,” says Folt. “With
endowed professorships we honor individuals for groundbreaking contributions in
their disciplines and distinguished contributions as teachers and mentors.
These chairs provide vital support for developing programs in pioneering areas
and offer new opportunities for students. We are very grateful for this support
from our generous alumni.”
Brad Evans is a managing director of Morgan Stanley and a vice chairman of
the firm’s investment banking department. He has been a member of the Dartmouth
Board of Trustees since 2003
and serves as co-chairman of the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience. He has
served on the executive committee of the Class of 1964, the Class of 1964 25th
Reunion Gifts Committee, the Major Gifts Committee of the 1990’s Will to Excel
capital campaign, and the Dartmouth College Fund Committee. He and his wife,
Barbara, a graduate of Tufts University, have been members of the President’s
Leadership Council. Mr. Evans is a member of the Board of Overseers of Columbia
Business School, from which he earned an M.B.A. in 1970.
Richard Pearl is a senior managing director of First Manhattan Company, a
private investment management firm in New York. Serving in the U.S. Air Force
after receiving his M.B.A. from the Tuck School, he has been with First
Manhattan since its inception in 1964. Jane Pearl, a graduate of the University
of Pennsylvania, is a director of the Pearl Family Foundation and an advisory
board member of the Westchester Land Trust. They have two grown daughters,
Jennifer and Merrie. Mr. Pearl is chairman of the Quiet Highway Council Inc., a
director of the Regional Review League, and a former chairman and trustee of
the St. Luke’s School. He has given his time generously to Dartmouth, serving
20 years as the Class of 1954’s representative to the Bequests and Trusts
Program, 10 years as gift planning chair for his class, and volunteering as a
class agent for the Dartmouth College Fund.
The commitments of these donors address a major priority in the $1.3 billion
Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, the largest fund-raising effort in
Dartmouth history. The College is seeking investment in four initiatives: to
advance leading-edge teaching and scholarship, enhance residential and campus
life, more fully endow its financial aid program, and raise unrestricted
dollars to fund the current student experience. The campaign is
institution-wide, embracing its undergraduate programs in the arts and sciences
and its three professional schools—Tuck School of Business, Thayer School of
Engineering, and Dartmouth Medical School—and advancing strategic goals
campus-wide.
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