Economist Williamson becomes first Brookings Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences
Stephen D. Williamson, Ph.D., has been named the first Robert S. Brookings Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences. The installation was held Feb. 19 in Holmes Lounge.
The title pays tribute to the chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1895-1928. Major changes were made during his long tenure that advanced the School of Medicine and moved the institution to what was then known as the “Hilltop” campus.
“Robert Brookings had tremen-dous faith in the potential of Washington University,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. “For 22 years, he guided our progress with an indefatigable spirit and great business acumen.”
In addition to providing key leadership in the development of the University, Brookings, whose career was made at Cupples and Marston, a woodenware and willowware wholesale business, contributed $200,000 for the construction of Brookings Hall. It was Brookings who spearheaded the creation of the present campus to coincide with the 1904 World’s Fair, and it was his plan to lease the newly completed campus to World’s Fair organizers, generating more money to finance the University’s physical expansion.
“It is an honor to acknowledge Robert Brookings’ great contributions and a pleasure to confer the honor on Stephen Williamson,” Wrighton said.
Williamson joined the Department of Economics in Arts & Sciences in 2006 after teaching at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario; the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario; and the University of Iowa in Iowa City. At Iowa, he was the Chester A. Phillips Professor of Financial Economics in the Tippie College of Business, directed the graduate studies program and served as chair in the Department of Economics. His professional research experience includes the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
“Steve Williamson is a great addition to the economics department,” said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor, dean of Arts & Sciences and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences. “He is a major contributor to the fields of macroeconomics and monetary economics, both academically and in the policy-making sector,” Macias said.
Williamson’s work focuses on the theory of financial contracts, banking theory and monetary theory and policy. He has conducted pioneering research in the application of information economics in money and banking, as well as the social role of monetary arrangements and the science of monetary policymaking.
In addition to teaching and research, Williamson is a research fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve banks of Richmond and Cleveland.
The author of the widely used textbook “Macroeconomics,” Williamson also has published prolifically in leading economics journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Review of Economic Studies and the Journal of Monetary Economics. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Monetary Economics and the Review of Economic Dynamics, as well as co-editor of Economic Theory.
The native Canadian earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Queen’s University and a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
McCarter named inaugural Moore professor
Robert McCarter has been installed as the Ruth & Norman Moore Professor of Architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
The professorship, established in 1986, was the first to be endowed in the Sam Fox School’s Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. The brother and sister, both alumni of the University, also created the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professorship in the school. A formal installation ceremony for McCarter took place Nov. 19, 2007, in Steinberg Hall.
“Ruth and Norman Moore were distinguished professionals and dedicated alumni,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. “As a result of their generosity, Washington University has attracted a number of talented architects to teach in the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design, for which we are very grateful.”
Reiterating the Chancellor’s expression of thanks, Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School for Visual Art & Design and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts, noted McCarter’s stature as an architect and the impact he’ll make at the school: “I am very grateful to the Moore family for this distinguished position that helped us attract a senior professor with the experience and vision of Robert McCarter. Robert is an architect, scholar and teacher who has established a significant national and international reputation in his field. Dean Bruce Lindsey and I are very pleased to have Robert, his wife, Susan, and daughter, Kate, in St. Louis.”
McCarter previously taught at the University of Florida, where he directed the School of Architecture from 1991-2001. Prior to that, he served as assistant dean and assistant chair at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture in New York from 1986-1991.
He is the author of several books, most recently “Frank Lloyd Wright: Critical Lives” (2006); “Louis I. Kahn” (2005); “On and By Frank Lloyd Wright: A Primer of Architectural Principles” (2005) and “William Morgan: Selected and Current Works” (2002). He also has contributed to numerous scholarly publications and written extensively for a variety of international journals, including GA Houses, Progressive Architecture, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Architectural Record and Bauforum.
Both “Louis I. Kahn” and “On and By Frank Lloyd Wright” were finalists for the inaugural Royal Institute of British Architects International Book Awards in 2006. On three occasions,
McCarter has been an appointed visiting scholar for the American Academy in Rome. Other honors include a 2002 Rotch Foundation Traveling Studio Award; a 1989 Graham Foundation grant for his work on Frank Lloyd Wright; and the 1983 SOM Design Fellowship. In 2008, he will serve as a juror for the annual Bruno Zevi Prize.
McCarter earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental design in architecture from North Carolina State University in 1977 and a master’s of architecture degree from Columbia in 1985. He received his architectural license in 1982 and since 1991 has been president of D-Mc2 Architecture P.A. in Tioga, Fla.
Ruth Moore Garbe earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science and economics in Arts & Sciences. Starting out as a journalist with the long-defunct St. Louis Sun-Times, she joined the Chicago Sun-Times’ Washington bureau in 1943 and won distinction as a science reporter. She also authored several books, including biographies of Charles Darwin and Niels Bohr.
In 1967, she became the first female member of the Board of Trustees, serving in that position until 1971. Her accomplishments were noted with an alumni citation in 1963. She died in 1989.
After Norman Moore earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture, he went to work for the National Park Service and the Tennessee Valley Authority. But it was after World War II that Moore made his mark on the architectural profession by becoming a pioneer in hospital design and construction. Being employed by the U.S. Public Health Services Division of Hospital Facilities at the time Congress passed the landmark Hill-Burton Hospital Act (1946), he participated in the largest hospital expansion initiative in American history. Between launching his private practice in the 1950s and his retirement in 1979, Moore oversaw the building of nearly 40 hospitals and medical facilities.
He received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1993 and the Robert S. Brookings Award in 1998. He died in 2000.
In addition to the gifts to establish the professorship and visiting professorship, Norman Moore and his wife, Doretha, established the Moore Challenge for the architecture school’s annual fund. Doretha Moore continues her husband’s legacy of generosity to the University and the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. She resides in Santa Fe, N.M.