Hopfield, Portes named to endowed professorships

Princeton NJ -- Two faculty members have been named to endowed professorships by the Board of Trustees.

John Hopfield was named the Howard A. Prior Professor in the Life Sciences, and Alejandro Portes was named the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Sociology. Both appointments were effective Feb. 1, 2002.

	John Hopfield

Hopfield joined the Princeton faculty as a professor of physics in 1964. Between 1980 and 1997, he was a professor of chemistry and biology at the California Institute of Technology. He returned to Princeton as a professor of molecular biology in 1997.

Hopfield is developing a theoretical understanding of how the neural circuits of the brain perform complex calculations. He investigates the way in which nerve cells work together to process sensory perceptions such as the recognition of odors or sounds. The Hopfield model of neural processing, which provides insight into the differences between computation in computers and the brain, has become widely referenced in the field.

The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Award in 1983, Hopfield also has received the American Physical Society's Prize in Biophysics and Buckley Prize as well as the Dirac Medal from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

	Alejandro Portes

Portes came to Princeton as a professor of sociology in 1997 after serving on the faculty at the University of Illinois, the University of Texas, Duke University and Johns Hopkins University.

He is the author of some 200 articles and chapters on national development, economics, sociology, immigration and urbanization. His most recent books are "City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami" (with Alex Stepick), which won the American Sociological Association's Robert E. Park Award; "Immigrant America: A Portrait" and "Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation" (both with Ruben Rumbaut); and "The Economic Sociology of Immigration."

Portes was president of the American Sociological Association in 1998-99 and also has served in leadership positions with the Latin American Studies Association. He recently completed a five-year term on the board of the Spencer Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.