Faculty mobility has suffered as budget-crunched colleges cut programs and as older faculty linger in their positions rather than retiring. But some types of professors can still move:
RESEARCHERS WITH LARGE GRANTS
José Onuchic and Herbert Levine, both physicists, and Peter Wolynes, a chemist, all left the University of California at San Diego this year to do cancer research at Rice University.
Peter J. Hotez, an internationally known scholar of tropical and infectious diseases, left George Washington University to go to Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital this year. Among the titles he holds in his new job are founding dean of a national school of tropical medicine to be established at Baylor College and endowed chair of tropical pediatrics at the hospital.
SUPERSTAR PROFESSORS AT EMBATTLED PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
Jonathan Lunine, planetary scientist and physicist, moved from the University of Arizona this year to Cornell University, where he holds an endowed chair in the physical sciences.
Jeremi Suri moved from the University of Wisconsin at Madison this year to the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a professor in the history department and the public-affairs school and holds an endowed chair for leadership in global affairs.
Keith A. Woerpel, now an endowed professor of medicinal chemistry, went to New York University from the University of California at Irvine last year.
PROFESSORS WHO CAN HELP BUILD A PRIORITY PROGRAM
Adrian Thomas, professor of industrial-organizational psychology, was hired away from Auburn University last year by Roosevelt University. He was recruited to be the founding director of Roosevelt’s doctoral program in industrial-organizational psychology.
H. Jay Melosh, now a distinguished professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and physics, moved to Purdue University from the University of Arizona in 2009. He was hired to help Purdue become a bigger player in the planetary sciences.
