Four Women Appointed to Endowed Professorships at Yale University

Rohini Pande has been named the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and director of the Economic Growth Center. She most recently served as the Rafik Hariri Professor of Political Economy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. She returns to Yale after previously holding teaching positions in the department of economics from 2003 to 2006.

Dr. Pande is a graduate of Delhi University in India. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Oxford in England and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

Joy Hirsch has been named the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, of Comparative Medicine, and of Neuroscience. In addition to this new appointment, she will continue to serve as senior investigator at Haskins Laboratories. Her research focuses on understanding the neural circuitry and fundamental mechanisms of the brain that enable live interpersonal interactions and social behavior.

Dr. Hirsch holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Columbia University in New York City.

Amy F.T. Arnsten has been named the Albert E. Kent Professor of Neuroscience and of Psychology. Her research studies molecular influences on higher cognitive function, with the aim of developing rational therapies for mental illness and for age-related cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Arnsten is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.

Serena Spudich was appointed the Dr. Harry M. Zimmerman and Dr. Nicholas and Viola Spinelli Professor of Neurology. Her research is focused on how HIV affects the central nervous system. Professor Spudich joined the Yale faculty in 2010.

Dr. Spudich holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from Stanford University. She earned her medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco.