Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
The Geographer of Space and Power: Doreen Massey, 1944-2016
Doreen Massey’s academic career combined the geographer’s focus on space with an advocate’s focus on inequality and class. Massey died Friday at age 72.
Showing Institutions Matter: Douglass North, 1920-2015
Douglass C. North’s contributions to economic theory have had an enormous influence on how scholars understand institutions and the process of economic change.
Darwin of the Human Sciences: René Girard, 1923-2015
René Girard, whose academic career began in literary theory, and whose own theory of mimesis influenced people ranging from J.M. Coetzee to the founder of PayPal, died last week at his home at Stanford.
The Game Theorist: John Nash, 1928-2015
The impact of John Nash’s initial work has been immense over the past 65 years. It seems certain that in his absence, the frameworks and mathematical language he refined and developed will continue to provide new insights into a diverse range of problems.
Data, Democracy, and Janet Norwood
Making decisions without data soils the public policy process with ideology, partisan politics, and misinformation, all things the late Janet Norwood abhorred. Her voice, commitment, and professionalism will be sorely missed.
Taliban Kills Social Scientist in Hotel Attack
Paula Kantor, an American social scientist working to improve the lot of women and children in Afghanistan, was among 13 civilians killed Thursday in an attack on a guesthouse in Kabul.
Democracy’s Statistician: Janet L. Norwood, 1923-2015
Unflappable and nonpartisan, the late economist Janet Norwood blazed a path as a pioneering female statistician and bureaucrat who served multiple presidents as the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Philosopher of Fun: Brian Sutton-Smith, 1924-2015
New Zealand native Brian Sutton-Smith, a developmental psychologist who brought study of fun off the playground and into the classroom, passed away earlier this month at age 90.
