An endowed professorship will enable Jeremy Pressman, the new Alan R. Bennett Honors Professor of Political Science, to finish a book on force and diplomacy in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Another will allow Michael Neumann, the new Stuart and Joan Sidney Professor of Mathematics, to host more conferences, such as a recent one on creativity and talent.
Pressman and Neumann received their new honors last week in a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences investiture ceremony attended by faculty, friends, and the donors whose gifts created the professorships.
Alan R. Bennett, a Washington lawyer who received his BA from CLAS as an honors scholar in political science in 1969, endowed the Bennett professorship to honor a researcher, scholar, and teacher who has made significant contributions to the field of political science and who will devote time to teaching and advising honors students.
Pressman, the first awardee, joined CLAS in 2003. His research focuses on the Arab-Israeli conflict, military alliances, and U.S. foreign policy.
He earned a BA at Brandeis University, a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and began his career at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has held fellowships at the Belfer Center at Harvard, the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, and at the Humanities Institute in CLAS.
The Sidney professorship was given by the children of Stuart and Joan Sidney. Stuart retired as professor of mathematics last year, and Joan is a writer, poet, and teacher who has been associated with the English department and is now a writer-in-residence and research associate for the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life in CLAS.
The announcement of the Sidney professorship at Stuart’s retirement party last year caught him by surprise he said, leaving him “shocked, thrilled, and moved.”
“So much for us parents thinking we’re in control,” said Joan.
Jennifer Sidney Silva, representing the four children and their spouses, said the gift cemented “the special relationship between our family and the University.”
She recalled growing up and living a short walk from campus and attending math department picnics as a child. Her older siblings are Larry Sidney of Avon, Daniel Sidney of Madison, Wisc., and Raymond Sidney of Stateline, Nev. Jennifer’s husband, Marco Silva, and Daniel’s wife, Naomi Chesler, also participated in the gift.
Pressman, after receiving his endowed professorship medal from Provost Peter J. Nicholls, said the professorship will provide benefits such as allowing him to closely involve his students in research. He warns students, however, to “try not to get lost in the ivory tower.”
Neumann recalled how his own father introduced him to calculus, using a 1920 book titled, Calculus Made Easy. When he became a father and was absorbed in his research projects, he said, his young daughter Rachel told friends, “My daddy is not a man, he’s a mathematician.”
