The forthcoming retirement of Professor of Mathematics Jim Denton hastened the search for a replacement statistics expert. "We chose Katherine in part because of her conception of what statistics means at a place like Amherst," said Professor of Mathematics David Cox. "We look forward to her arrival on campus next fall."
Tranbarger's hiring concluded a lengthy process. "The department selected three candidates to bring to campus for interviews, which took place during January," said Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science John Rager. "While the candidates were here, each of them met with students, members of the department and members of the administration. In addition, they each gave a lecture, which was attended by students and professors."
The biology department has interviewed six candidates to date and will host a seventh this week, selected from a field of more than 100 respondents to an international search.
Professor of Biology Ethan Temeles, the department chair, stressed that genomics is critical to identifying new genes and hopes to expose students at the College to a premier genomicist. "Over the last decade, the sequencing of complete genomes from organisms as diverse as humans, fruit flies, nematodes and yeast has made it possible to determine the fundamental mechanisms governing processes in biology," he said. "For example, in the field of functional genomics, researchers use genomes from different species to first identify functional regions and then to make predictions about how these regions regulate biochemical processes in organisms. In comparative genomics, researchers compare genomes across diverse organisms such as mice, fruit flies and humans. We hope we will be fortunate enough to hire a terrific genomicist for the College."
Biology major Miranda Kim '06 hopes that the new assistant professor will teach an introduction to genomics. "Genomics is a fairly new field that is growing rapidly, and I think that it will be extremely beneficial for us to be exposed to it during our undergraduate studies," she said.
Computer science students cited a dearth of course offerings and hope that the addition of Tranbarger will help fix the problem. "This semester, there was only a single elective CS course offered," said major Laura Strickman '07. "There are only four professors, and generally one is away. It's a small department, but only having three professors a semester is pushing it."
Major Ben Kaufman '07 agreed. "It is clear that the CompSci department needs to find a way to offer more classes somehow," said Kaufman. "At this point the only [important] qualification for a new teacher is that he or she be able to teach the introductory-level courses well, so that the current professors could devote time to the upper-level electives."
The job description for the statistics position demanded a Ph.D. in statistics and broad intellectual interests as well as a strong commitment to excellence in research and undergraduate teaching. "Departmental responsibilities include teaching courses in statistics and mathematics and supervising undergraduate honors projects," the College's Web site said. The department is confident that Tranbarger meets all of these requirements.
The history and Asian languages and civilizations departments have interviewed four candidates for the cross-departmental Japanese history position, according to Karen Zawisza '05, a member of the search committee. "The professor would be expected to teach a survey course in Japanese history and a course in their specialty," she said. "We were looking for someone who would be engaging for students and would provide interesting courses."
According to the College's Web site, "The appointee will be expected to teach two courses per semester, including general courses in modern and pre-modern Japanese history, departmental seminars and colloquia, and other courses in the appointee's area of expertise."
In addition to its three principal searches, the College is looking for a one-year visiting assistant professor for the religion department and a three-year visiting professor of Spanish, whose title will depend on the experience of the candidate selected. "Departments who anticipate special needs (an unusually large number of sabbaticals, for example) apply for visiting appointments in November," Dean of the Faculty Gregory Call said. "The Dean reviews those requests and allocates the modest number of positions he has available to those departments in the greatest need. Departments then search to fill these visiting appointments in the spring, so that the newly hired visiting professors may start teaching at Amherst in the fall."
According to Call, hundreds of scholars apply for the open positions. The departments narrow the field to three to eight outstanding candidates to be interviewed on campus by Call, faculty, majors and, in certain cases, President Anthony Marx.
The hiring process is a two-year endeavor. Last spring, each department interested in searching for a new faculty member submitted an application to the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP). The CEP reviewed the proposals and made recommendations to Call, who assessed those recommendations with Marx and approved the searches for this year.