Yale Bulletin and Calendar

January 17, 2003|Volume 31, Number 15|Two-Week Issue

Peter Salovey (center) is pictured at the announcement of his appointment as dean of the Graduate School with President Richard C. Levin and Provost Susan Hockfield, who previously held the deanship.

Psychologist Peter Salovey named
new dean of the Graduate School

President Richard C. Levin has named psychology professor Peter Salovey as the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, effective immediately.

Salovey is the Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology for the past two and a half years. He succeeds Susan Hockfield, the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology, who was named Yale's provost last month.

"Professor Salovey has been an outstanding scholar and teacher since joining the faculty in 1986 and an exceptionally effective chair of the psychology department," said Levin in announcing the appointment. "Those of us who have worked with Professor Salovey know that he has a special talent for bringing out the best in people and in fostering collaboration. He is an inspired teacher and a devoted mentor. I am confident that he will distinguish himself as dean, just as he has in every assignment he has been given throughout his career at Yale."

Salovey said: "Under Dean Hockfield's gifted leadership, there is now a sense of community in the graduate school that is truly inspiring. I am eager to build on Susan's accomplishments as well as to push the school in exciting new directions so that we can continue to attract the very best students and faculty in the world to Yale."

Salovey received an A.B. in psychology and a co-terminal M.A. in sociology from Stanford University in 1980. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale in 1986 and has served on the faculty ever since. He is the first dean of the Graduate School to have served as president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate in his student days.

He joined the Yale faculty in 1986 and became a full professor in 1995. Before becoming chair of his department, he served as director of graduate studies in psychology for six years. He holds secondary appointments in the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at the School of Medicine and in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. In addition, he is deputy director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS.

Salovey's recent research has focused on the psychological consequences of the arousal of emotion, especially on the ways in which moods and emotions facilitate adaptive cognitive and behavioral functioning. With John D. Mayer, he developed a broad framework called "Emotional Intelligence" that organizes this work. He also conducts research funded by the National Institutes of Health on the framing and tailoring of health messages to motivate behaviors that can prevent cancer and HIV/AIDS. While serving as Graduate School dean, he will continue to conduct research on emotional intelligence and on health behaviors relevant to cancer and HIV/AIDS prevention with his graduate students and research staff.

Salovey is president-elect of the American Psychological Association's Division of General Psychology. He has authored more than 200 publications and edited several psychology journals. A recipient of the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Award, he has served on the foundation's Social Psychology Advisory Panel and the National Institute of Mental Health's Behavioral Science Working Group on Translational Research in Mental Health.

A popular teacher, Salovey was awarded ,the William Clyde DeVane Medal for Distinguished Scholarship and Teaching at Yale in 2000 and the Lex Hixon Prize for Teaching in the Social Sciences in 2002. He has been a mentor to dozens of master's and doctoral degree candidates.

Professor Maria Rosa Menocal headed the advisory committee that helped Levin select the new dean. Committee members were Ronald Breaker, Gary Brudvig, Lynn Cooley, Paul Gilroy, Donald Green, Daniel Kevles, Annabel Patterson, David Pearce and Mitchell Smooke.

Levin thanked the committee for working "quickly and thoroughly to review recommendations, to solicit the opinions of department chairs and other faculty leaders, to meet with leaders of the Graduate Student Assembly and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and to forward their collective counsel to me so that I could make this appointment at the beginning of this semester."

Marcia Johnson, professor of psychology and psychiatry, will serve as the acting chair of psychology for the spring semester.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences prepares students for careers in research, scholarship and teaching through advanced study in 73 departments and programs. Approximately 2,300 students currently pursue master's and doctoral degrees. Established in 1847, it is the nation's oldest graduate school and the first in the United States to award the Ph.D. degree.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Psychologist Peter Salovey named new dean of the Graduate School

Science Watch ranks University's researchers . . .

Peabody exhibition sheds light on mysteries of Machu Picchu

Talks, services to mark Yale's tribute to King

DeVane Lectures to explore literary, artistic realism

'Father of fractals' wins Japan Prize

Law School events focus on controversial Roe v. Wade opinion

Former Basic Books publisher takes the helm at Yale Press

Exhibits recall era of 'Romantics and Revolutionaries'

Exhibit features 'modernist' works by Edgar Degas

Show explores children's interest in the law and law-breakers

Artist's reinventions of Vermeer masterpieces are showcased

Ward Davenny, noted pianist and long-time Yale teacher, dies

Study shows benefits of exercise in reducing intra-abdominal fat

Drama school stages Shakespearean tale about a hero . . .

Playreading festival in New York City will feature new works . . .

Peabody celebrating MLK Day with family activities, music . . .

Talk and screening by alumnus to highlight Asian American film festival

Campus Notes