Two University of Rochester professors are among the 158 artists, scholars, and scientists chosen to receive prestigious John S. Guggenheim Fellowships for 1996-97. The Guggenheim selection committee received 2,791 applications for this year's competition. Guggenheim Fellows are chosen for unusually distinguished past achievements and exceptional future promise.
Morris Eaves, professor of English and chair of the department, will use his Guggenheim to complete a book on the fundamental principles of textual criticism, or scholarly editing, and canon formation. Titled Posterity: The Authority of the Audience, the book will examine the print culture of the late 18th century up to the emergent digital culture of the late 20th century. Eaves plans to explore the medium of representation (including technological and economic factors) and the role of the audience in shaping texts. The book will include numerous illustrations; Eaves also may supplement the text with CD-ROM and Internet materials.
Eaves, who has a Ph.D. from Tulane University, joined the University faculty in 1986. He had taught previously at the University of New Mexico for 16 years. He will take a year's leave of absence to complete the book.
Shaul Mukamel, professor of chemistry, will use his Guggenheim to visit laboratories in Europe and the U.S. to collaborate with groups studying the early stages of photosynthesis, where the sun's energy is converted into useful chemical energy much more efficiently than any artificial process. Mukamel's expertise in theoretical studies of using ultra-fast lasers to probe chemical reactions makes his own laboratory a popular destination for scientists from around the world; he is currently hosting researchers from Germany, Austria, Russia, Israel, and Japan.
A graduate of Tel Aviv University, Mukamel did post-doctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley before joining the University in 1982. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America, and last year he completed a graduate level textbook, Principles of Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy.
Editors: Eaves lives on Greenview Drive in Rochester; Mukamel lives on Palmerston Road in Brighton.
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