Brown Logo

The News Service
38 Brown Street / Box R
Providence RI 02912

401 863-2476
Fax 863-9595

Distributed May 14, 2004
Contact Mark Nickel



News
Economist Rajiv Vohra named dean of the faculty at Brown University

Rajiv Vohra, professor of economics and former department chair, has been appointed dean of the faculty at Brown University. He will begin his duties July 1, 2004, succeeding Mary L. Fennell.


Vohra PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rajiv Vohra, professor and former department chair of economics at Brown University, has been appointed dean of the faculty. Vohra will begin his duties as dean on July 1, 2004, succeeding Mary L. Fennell.

“The development of the Brown University Faculty – its renewal and growth, its enhanced resources and support, and its strategic distribution within and across departments – is the cornerstone of the University’s Plan for Academic Enrichment,” said Brown Provost Robert J. Zimmer, to whom the dean of the faculty reports. “Rajiv Vohra’s intelligence, commitment, experience, and personal qualities will enable him to guide and advance the work that Mary Fennell has already begun. I am delighted with this appointment and am looking forward to working with him.”

The dean of the faculty is a senior member of the University’s academic administration and is directly responsible for the recruitment, retention and development of University faculty, working closely with the dean of medicine and biological sciences, who has those responsibilities within the Division of Biology and Medicine.

As the officer most directly involved in shaping and developing the Brown faculty, the dean of the faculty has a significant impact on the University’s intellectual life and academic future. The dean supervises and approves all faculty searches and departmental hiring plans; works with faculty governance committees on hiring, reappointment, promotion and tenure; convenes small discussion groups of department chairs and faculty on academic issues and initiatives; serves as the faculty’s advocate within the University; and is a member of the President’s Cabinet.

A graduate of St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi, Vohra earned his master’s at the Delhi School of Economics in 1979 and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1983. He came to Brown in 1983 as an assistant professor economics, becoming a full professor in 1989. He served as chair of the Department of Economics for four years, from 1991 to 1995.

Vohra’s work in economic theory ranges widely, encompassing general equilibrium theory, cooperative and non-cooperative game theory, information economics and implementation theory. His theoretical work has served as the conceptual foundation for developing policy in many areas of practical importance, from regulation of public utilities to pollution controls to the formation of cartels. His research has been regularly supported by the National Science Foundation.

Vohra has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Indian Statistical Institute and served as the Morgenstern Visiting Professor of Economic Theory at New York University. He is on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Game Theory, the Journal of Mathematical Economics and the Journal of Public Economic Theory.

Vohra and his wife, Amita, live in East Greenwich, R.I., and have two children. Their son Mihir studies in East Greenwich High School and their daughter Divya is a member of the Class of 2007 at Brown.

In addition to Provost Zimmer, who served as chair, the search committee for the dean of the faculty included Beth Bauer (Hispanic studies), Deborah Boedeker (classics), Clyde Briant (engineering), Mari Jo Buhle (American civilization), Karen Fischer (geological sciences), Donald Jackson (molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology), Kevin McLaughlin (English), Marion Orr (political science), and Ignacio Palacio-Huerta (economics).

######


News Service Home  |  Top of File  |  e-Subscribe  |  Brown Home Page