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April 23, 1999
Physicist and Computer Scientist are Next Year's Visiting Distinguished Teachers
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The University announced the appointment of two visiting professors who were asked to come to Princeton next year because of their outstanding teaching abilities. Physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell and computer scientist Brian Kernighan will hold the 250th Anniversary Visiting Professorships for Distinguished Teaching in 1999-00.
Bell Burnell, currently a visiting fellow in the Physics Department, earned her BSc in 1965 at the University of Glasgow and her PhD at Cambridge University in 1968. Most recently, she chaired the Physics Department of the UK's largest university, the Open University in Milton Keynes, England.
"In general," she says, "I'm keen to make physics more accessible to more people, and especially to increase the number of women in the physical sciences." She acknowledges she has "a reputation for explaining things clearly and in an unintimidating way." In addition, "I hugely enjoy teaching and am looking forward to working with Princeton students. I feel privileged to be here."
Bell Burnell has taught at the University of Southampton, been on the staff of the Mullard Space Science Lab at the University of London and held a management post at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
Her research interests are in astrophysics, and, she says, "astronomical examples tend to find their way into my courses." Within astrophysics, her interests are "the neutron stars or pulsars that I discovered as a grad student." She has been associated this year with Princeton's pulsar group.
Kernighan, who will teach in the Computer Science Department, comes to the University from Bell Labs in Murray Hill, where he has been since he earned his PhD from Princeton in 1969. His 1964 bachelor's degree is from the University of Toronto.
Next fall, he plans to teach "a new course," he says, called Computers in Our World. "It's for people who don't expect to be doing computing in any technical field but want to know what it's all about. Even though most people won't be directly involved with programming, everyone is affected by computers, so an educated person should have a good understanding of how computer hardware, software and networks operate." In addition, he says, "It's important to be informed about issues like usability, reliability, security, privacy and some of the inherent limitations of computers."
In the spring, Kernighan may teach Advanced Programming Techniques. Though he taught the course here in 1993, he observes, "Quite a bit has changed since then, and it would be fun to revisit the course." Kernighan is coauthor of The Practice of Programming (1999).
These professorships were established by President Shapiro as part of teaching initiatives associated with the University's 250th Anniversary. Visitors are selected for excellence in teaching and their capacity to foster innovation in undergraduate education.