Three Women Named to Endowed Professorships

Padma Rajagoplan was appointed to the Robert E. Hord Jr. Professorship in Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Dr. Rajagopalan joined the faculty at Virgina Tech in 2007. Her research focuses on liver tissue engineering.

Professor Rajagoplan holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology. She earned a Ph.D. at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Melissa  Jonson-Reid was named the Ralph and Murial Pumphrey Professor of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on services provided to abused and neglected children.

Professor Jonson-Reid joined the faculty at Washington University in 1997. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master of social work degree from California State University, Sacramento. She holds a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley.

Heidi M. Ravven was appointed the Bates and Benjamin Professor of Classical and Religious Studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She is the author of The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Sciences, and the Myth of Free Will (New Press, 2013).

Professor Ravven holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D., all from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.