Brown Recruits a New Generation of Faculty

It feels like they've always been with us:  Sue Alcock, Stephen Houston, Chad Jenkins, Heather Leslie, Tricia Rose, Ken Chay and so many more. We see them on campus, we read of their accomplishments, we hear them speak at Brown and at conferences throughout the country. Yet, none of them called the University "home" prior to Boldly Brown.

The numbers tell us that the Plan for Academic Enrichment has increased our already stellar faculty since 2003. But numbers alone do not describe the impact of these talented new voices added to the already vigorous intellectual dialogue that is Brown. Numbers can't capture the excitement of students asked to challenge previously entrenched ideas or discovering their own creative potential. Numbers don't illustrate the depth or breadth of research as faculty undertake new multidisciplinary initiatives.

Here are a few recent achievements of faculty brought to Brown by the Plan for Academic Enrichment:

• BrainGate, a brain-computer interface system that helps people with paralysis control machines with their thoughts, was developed in part by Leigh Hochberg, associate professor of engineering.
• Writer Chinua Achebe, the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University, was named the recipient of the 2010 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the largest and most prestigious awards in the arts.
• Susan Alcock, inaugural director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, was selected to lead the Heritage as Bridge project, which seeks to draw on both the economic and educational benefits that heritage sites—such as archaeological sites, parks and their museums—offer host countries and tourists.
• Brown researchers—including Professor of Geological Sciences Timothy Herbert—believe that carbon dioxide is the missing ingredient in explaining the advent of Ice Ages in the Northern Hemisphere and why those cold epochs have caused changes in the tropics for the past 2.7 million years.
• A study led by Assistant Professor of Community Health and Medicine Mark Lurie and an international team of researchers developed the first statistical evidence linking mining to high rates of tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa.
• A team of archaeologists led by Professor Stephen Houston discovered a royal tomb—filled with materials that have been preserved for approximately 1,600 years—in Guatemala.
• New research from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center, led by Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Abbe Garcia, may help clinicians better predict how a child with obsessive compulsive disorder will respond to treatment approaches.

With underwriting from Boldly Brown: Campaign for Academic Enrichment, the Plan has not just expanded the faculty, but also created a dynamic new environment where everyone can reach new heights. Brown has always embraced independent thinking; today Brown is a community of independent thinkers working together to promote change and improve lives locally, nationally, and globally.

This story originally appeared on the Boldly Brown: Campaign for Academic Enrichment website in March 2011.