For the record
New dean on Harris horizon
Susan E. Mayer has been named dean of the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, succeeding Robert T. Michael, the school's founding dean. An associate professor at the Harris School and in the College, she begins a five-year term on July 1. Deputy director of the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research, Mayer joined the Harris School in 1989. Author of two books on poverty policy issues, she is now studying the consequences of economic inequality, economic mobility across generations and the role of noncognitive skills on social and economic success.

The write stuff
Marc Fumaroli, professor in Romance languages & literatures and the Committee on Social Thought, was awarded the 2001 Balzan Prize for Literary History and Criticism (post-1500) by the Balzan Foundation for outstanding international achievement in the humanities. Fumaroli's writings on the art of conversation and rhetoric made him one of four recipients of the 2001 awards, which carry a prize of 1 million Swiss francs (approximately $550,000).

Religious fellows
Of the 35 students nationally who won this year's Charlotte Newcombe doctoral dissertation fellowships, five are at Chicago, more than from any other school. The Newcombe fellowship, administered by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, funds dissertations on religious and ethical topics. The students-from history, anthropology, music, and Social Thought-receive $16,000 stipends to complete the final year of their dissertation projects.

Officer Shapiro
In November James Shapiro, professor in biochemistry and molecular biology, was named an honorary officer, Order of the British Empire, by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Shapiro, a Chicago faculty member since 1973, was honored for his services to British-American relations as a member of the Marshall Scholarships selection committee since 1983, including serving as its chair since 1991.

All things must pass
M.B.A. courses on the electronic frontier have fallen in popularity among students as drastically as the technology companies they study. In 1999 the course E-Business Strategies was so popular that GSB students were required to show their I.D.s to get through the door. Although 220 students tried to register for 60 spots in the course only three years ago, so few students have shown interest this year that it has been dropped.

CFO moves to Art Institute
Patti Woodworth has resigned as the University's vice president and chief financial officer to become executive vice president for finance and administration & chief financial officer at the Art Institute of Chicago. Woodworth joined the U of C in 1998 from her position as New York state's budget director. Her resignation was effective January 1, and a search is under way for a successor.

Here comes the sun
A years-old informal relationship between environmental researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and the U of C is now formal. The government's 2002 Veterans Housing and Urban Development appropriations plan includes $500,000 for a new Center for Environmental Science at Argonne that will study climate, urban air quality, and ways to improve environmental forecasting. Argonne scientists hope to have the center up and running by next summer.

The business of the future
Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor in the business school, has been named one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum. Goolsbee was lauded for his focus on major public-policy issues of the "new economy," including the economics of the Internet.

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