情色空间

by Maura Kelly

When the Schiller Institute conducted its first round of faculty hires, during the 2021-22 academic year, its interdisciplinary hiring committee focused on helping Seidner Family Executive Director Laura J. Steinberg build a superstar energy and environment team. The team鈥檚 expansive search, which took about seven months, paid off: They ultimately brought to campus two of the world鈥檚 most prominent climate scientists鈥擧anqin Tian, Institute Professor of Global Sustainability, and Yi Ming, Institute Professor of Climate Science and Society鈥攊n time for the fall semester. In the spring, the Schiller team welcomed their third core faculty hire from that wide-ranging search: Associate Professor Jier Huang, a chemistry expert who works on the cutting edge of solar power development. As 2024 approaches, Schiller is ready to take up another intensive search in order to find three additional Core faculty members. While last year鈥檚 search was focused on energy and environment, this year鈥檚 will primarily focus on the third pillar of the Schiller Institute鈥檚 mission: health.

Schiller is planning to hire two scholars who have extensive research backgrounds in understanding or reducing health risks affected by or arising from climate change. The Schiller team is interested in researchers who study how global warming is driving the spread of infectious disease, for instance; they鈥檙e also interested in those who look at how to alleviate such climate-driven health risks as cardiovascular disease, mental illness or food insecurity coupled with poor nutrition. They will also consider candidates who look at the impacts of climate change at any level鈥攊.e. how it affects the health of an individual, a community, or the world.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for people who will have an immediate impact on the university,鈥� says Steinberg. 鈥淏y recruiting Hanqin and Yi, we immediately raised 情色空间鈥檚 international profile, since they are both internationally-recognized scholars.鈥� She is determined to duplicate that level of success with this round of hires. To find prospects of the highest caliber, the institute plans to search far and wide鈥攖hough it is also open to looking more locally, too: Schiller welcomes recommendations from their Boston College colleagues.

A separate committee is looking for a social scientist鈥攐ne whose work is focused on the transition to cleaner, renewable energy sources, or on how to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Schiller social scientist would work closely with Professors Tian, Ming, and Huang; and might have expertise in socio-environmental systems modeling, environmental justice, climate resilience, or integrated assessment modeling. On the other hand, the new hire might focus on societal aspects of the transition to cleaner or renewable energy technologies, community energy initiatives, and energy poverty.

If these descriptions sound broad, that is by design, as Steinberg explains. 鈥淣ot getting too specific allows us to attract the most outstanding faculty possible,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 more important to us than finding people with specific interests is finding experts who can have the largest impact both in their scholarship and as members of the 情色空间听 community.鈥�

All three of the hires that Schiller plans to make this year will come in at the associate or full level. 鈥淲e expect that anyone we hire will become a tenured professor,鈥� says Steinberg.
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As she did last year, Steinberg and her team have once again assembled search committees by drawing from a diversity of departments and schools across campus. The team responsible for making the health hire includes Professor Welkin Johnson, Biology department chair, who was closely involved with the hiring of Professors Tian, Ming, and Huang. He underscores Steinberg鈥檚 point about searching widely by saying, 鈥淲e鈥檙e defining health broadly, whether it is mental or physical.鈥� If the committee found itself most interested in a biologist鈥攆or example, 鈥渁n infectious disease specialist who studies how climate affects emerging pathogens鈥濃�擯rofessor Johnson would probably take the lead on the interview, and so on. But if the top candidate studies mental health, then the psychology professor on the committee, John Christianson, would be more involved鈥攁nd the nursing professor, Karen Lyons, would step up if the top candidate specializes in patient health.听

All this said, Professor Johnson points out that the committees will be looking for people who have more than merely specialized knowledge. 鈥淪chiller is the institute for science and society, so we explicitly look for people who are not only leaders in their field but who are also outward looking鈥攚ho go beyond focusing on the research, and embrace the idea of outreach to the public,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou could have a brilliant physicist doing great work. But if they are not outward-looking, maybe only their immediate field knows what they鈥檙e doing.鈥� Such insularity would make them a bad fit at Schiller. 鈥淲e want people who can do the research but also communicate their work to the public, and be sought out as experts on this鈥攑eople who would have significant interaction with the press, journalists, news agencies,鈥� says Johnson. 鈥淭hat is not the typical thing that scientists are expected to do.鈥� But it鈥檚 what Schiller asks of its people, since a problem as far-reaching as climate change will never be solved in a vacuum. The kind of person Schiller will hire, Johnson adds, will be someone who goes 鈥渢hat extra mile to communicate about their work.鈥�

The search committees have three members who have unique perspectives on Schiller鈥檚 hiring process: Professors Ming, Tian, and Huang. Professor Ming, a member of the health search committee, is glad to be a part of the search. Once the new faculty member starts, 鈥渨e can potentially work together on a range of topics such as climate justice, community engagement, environmental policy and integrated assessment modeling,鈥� says Ming. 鈥淭he new hire would complement the existing Core faculty members by bringing new perspectives and insights to the mix.鈥�

Professor Huang, a member of the social science committee, says she鈥檚 eager to help with the work of finding someone, because her new colleague should be someone 鈥渨ith whom I can directly collaborate in furthering the Schiller Institute's mission.鈥� She continues, 鈥淲e currently have three Core faculty members in the field of natural science. Appointing an additional Core faculty member in the social sciences will open up greater opportunities for the integration of science and society.鈥澨�

Professor Tian is also a member of the social science committee. From his perspective, the right person 鈥渨ill help promote and facilitate the integration and communication of knowledge across the physical, ecological, and human systems, which is essential for advancing scientific understanding of complex interactions among climate, ecosystems, and humans as well as providing science-based solutions to climate and environmental challenges.鈥� He adds, 鈥淚 think we can develop an integrated research program that couples natural-socioeconomic systems for tackling climate change and sustainability challenges.鈥� He further points out that a new social scientist would have the opportunity to participate in existing climate-related programs at 情色空间, like the Global Ethics and Social Trust Program, which hosts a working group that looks at how climate change affects migration.

The search-and-hiring process will take about six months to complete, by Steinberg鈥檚 estimate. Any candidate who gets a job offer will have to be enthusiastically backed not only by Schiller, but by the department with which they would have a joint appointment鈥攍ike Biology, Psychology, Nursing, or Earth and Environmental Sciences. 鈥淲e really value the interdisciplinarity of our search committees,鈥� says Steinberg. 鈥淭hey model the collaborative spirit that we seek to encourage at Schiller, and that we look for in the candidates for the Core faculty positions.鈥�