Two Women Professors at Yale University Appointed to Endowed Chairs

Vivian Irish was named the Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale. Her research focuses on the genetic and molecular mechanisms that control patterning processes in plant development. Professor Irish joined the faculty at Yale in 1991 as an assistant professor of biology. She currently serves as chair of the department of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology.

Dr. Irish is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She earned a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University and did postdoctoral research as a Jane Coffin Childs fellow at the University of Cambridge in England.

Elisabeth Jean Wood was appointed the Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor of the Human Environment. Her current research involves the study of political violence, particularly sexual violence during times of war. Professor Wood joined the faculty at Yale in 2004. Earlier, she taught at New York University. She is the author of Forging Democracy From Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Professor Wood is a graduate of Cornell University. After earning a degree at the University of Oxford in England, she earned a Ph.D. in political science at Stanford University.