Boer is appointed to John J. Lee Adjunct Chair in Chemistry F. Peter Boer has been appointed the John J. Lee Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering by vote of the Yale Corporation; his appointment is effective July 1. Boer, a chemical physicist who heads the technology and science consulting firm Tiger Scientific, Inc., came to Yale in 1998 and is affiliated with both the Yale School of Management (SOM) and the department of engineering. Boer's work centers on chemical and environmental engineering, with emphasis on the development of concepts related to environmental science and policy. His introductory course in environmental engineering discusses the causes of environmental problems (from global climate change to the disposal of radioactive wastes) and the application of technologies to address those problems. His research interests include reducing air pollutants from stationary and mobile sources, catalysis, polyolefin polymerization, and polymer processing. At Yale SOM, Boer examines the valuation of technology, particularly the relationship of research and development projects to the perceived value of the parent corporation. He also develops portfolios to determine the effects of diversification and research and development productivity on risk and value. His current emphasis is on the applications of "real option" theory to research and development analysis. His book "The Valuation of Technology" was published this year. Since 1996, Boer has been chief executive officer of Tiger Scientific Inc., a Florida-based consulting and investment-services firm. Prior to that, 1982-95, he held several positions with W.R. Grace & Co. During his last six years there, he was executive vice president and chief technical officer, responsible for research and development, corporate engineering, developmental businesses, environment, and health and safety. Boer was vice president and general manager for research and development for the American Can Company, 1978-82. Earlier, he had held various positions with The Dow Chemical Company. Boer received his bachelor's degree in physics from Princeton University and earned a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University. His thesis, "Molecular and Valence Structures of Boron Compounds," contributed to William N. Lipscomb's 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Boer has written scores of scientific papers published in leading journals. He has served on numerous councils, committees, advisory boards and boards of directors. He is one of only three Yale faculty members elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering. Boer is past president of the Industrial Research Institute, whose 292 members perform more than 85 percent of the scientific industrial research in the United States. Goetzmann named Beinecke Professor at Yale SOM At the recommendation of Dean Jeffrey E. Garten, William N. Goetzmann has been appointed the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies, by vote of the Yale Corporation; his appointment is effective immediately. A graduate of the Yale School of Management (SOM), Goetzmann returned there as associate professor of finance in 1995. He was appointed professor of finance in 1977. Goetzmann is an expert on a diverse range of investments, including stocks, mutual funds, real estate and paintings. His research interests include long-term global investing, emerging markets, global real estate markets, and the survivorship of world markets. Goetzmann is director of Yale SOM's International Center for Finance, a new global, interdisciplinary facility that sponsors academic research on current issues in finance. The center also provides data to its fellows for research and fosters intellectual interaction among scholars at Yale and other institutions, who work on financial issues. Among Goetzmann's goals is the continued development of the center as a research resource for the entire University. Goetzmann has authored scores of journal articles about finance and real estate. His work also has been highlighted in mainstream publications such as BusinessWeek, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The alumnus holds a total of five degrees from Yale. He graduated from Yale College in 1978 with a B.A., with honors, in art history and archaeology; earned an MBA from Yale SOM in 1986; received a M.A. and M.Phil. in 1989; and was awarded a Ph.D. -- in operations research with a specialty in finance -- in 1991. He is a fellow of Jonathan Edwards College. Before teaching at Yale SOM, Goetzmann was assistant professor of finance at Columbia Business School, 1990-94. He was director of the Museum of Western Art in Denver, Colorado, 1984-85. The recipient of Yale SOM Alumni Association's 1998 Alumni Teaching Award, Goetzmann also has received numerous accolades for his research. The most recent of these are the 1998 Roger F. Murray Prize from the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, and the 1997 Outstanding Paper Award from the Journal of Financial Research. Goetzmann is a member of the board of the American Finance Association, and the American Real Estate and Urban Economic Association. He is a coeditor of Real Estate Economics and associate editor of The Journal of Finance, and of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. He is an editorial board member of, or referee for, several other journals. His activities with Yale SOM's International Center for Finance are described on the center's web site, at http://viking.som.yale.edu. Polak assumes Kohn Associate Chair in Economics Benjamin Polak has been named the Henry Kohn Associate Professor of Economics by vote of the Yale Corporation; his five-year appointment is effective immediately. Polak joined the Yale faculty in 1994 as assistant professor in the economics department. His teaching interests focus on microeconomic theory and economic history; classes include Econ 159, the regular undergraduate game theory course. Lauded as an outstanding academician, Polak last year received both the Graduate Teaching Prize and the Graduate Advising Prize from his department. Polak has done research on topics ranging from the emergence of a capital market in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, to property transactions in Ireland from the early 18th century to modern times, to past correlations between poverty, policy and industrialization. His papers have been published in numerous journals focusing on economic theory and history, including the Rand Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economic History, the Journal of Economic Theory, Irish Economic and Social History, and Econometrica. A native of Great Britain, Polak received his bachelor's degree in economics from Cambridge University (Trinity College) in 1984, with first-class honors. His dissertation centered on "Agricultural Credit and Rural Differentiation in Highland Kenya." He then came to the United States to study at Northwestern University. Still focusing his research on Kenya, he earned a master's degree in history from Northwestern in 1986 with the thesis "Rinderpest and Kenya in the 1890s." Polak then went to Harvard University, where in 1992 he earned a Ph.D. in economics. His doctoral thesis, titled "Problems from the History of Capital Markets," gave him the opportunity to merge his interest in the fields of economics and history, a path he would continue to follow in his teaching career. Before coming to Yale, Polak was a visiting professor at the New Economic School in Moscow, in 1993. He also was a visiting fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, 1991-94, and, concurrently, a junior fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. After coming to Yale he received several visiting appointments, including ones at the Research School of the Social Sciences at the Australian National University, London School of Economics and Australian National University. He also serves as a referee for leading academic journals. In addition to prizes from the economics department at Yale, Polak also received a Yale Junior Faculty Sabbatical Fellowship in 1997. His other awards and honors include MacArthur Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan research fellowships in 1996 and 1998, respectively. T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Alumni elect Roland W. Betts as new trustee To the Yale Community Murder on the Nile? Examination suggests Peabody mummy met with . . . Study shows quality of child care affects school performance Endowed Professorships Literary critic Harold Bloom awarded Gold Medal . . . Academy of Arts and Sciences taps three Yale faculty Exhibit recalls art and poetry inspired by the Great War Downtown program will add local flavor to International Festival . . . Show by Peabody artists among Yale-related events during festival Boredom with board games prompts Green to invent new one Beinecke Library acquires papers of noted theater director The University honors its long-serving staff members Three Yale teachers are selected as Guggenheim Fellows Schell Center for International Human Rights announces new appointments . . . 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 Richard W. Betts William N. Goetzmann Benjamin Polak