Shopping cart (0 items) |
RSS

Contents

June 10, 2010 • Volume 57, Number 10

LETTERS

Contributors

Freeman Dyson has spent most of his life as a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, taking time off to advise the US government and write books for the general public. He was born in England and worked as a civilian scientist for the Royal Air Force during World War II. He came to Cornell University as a graduate student in 1947 and worked with Hans Bethe and Richard Feynman, producing a user-friendly way to calculate the behavior of atoms and radiation. He also worked on nuclear reactors, solid-state physics, ferromagnetism, astrophysics, and biology, looking for problems where elegant mathematics could be usefully applied.

Dyson’s books include Disturbing the Universe (1979), Weapons and Hope (1984), Infinite in All Directions (1988), Origins of Life (1986, second edition 1999), The Sun, the Genome and the Internet (1999), and A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (2010). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 2000 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

Peter Beinart is Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and Senior Political Writer for The Daily Beast. His new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, will be published in June.
 (June 2010)

Sue Halpern is a scholar in residence at Middlebury. Her most recent book is Can’t Remember What I Forgot: Your Memory, Your Mind, Your Future.
 (January 2012)

Hilton Als is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His first book, *The Women*, a meditation on gender, race, and personal identity, was published in 1996. He was awarded a Guggenheim for Creative Writing in 2000 and the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for 2002-03. Als lives in New York City.

Michael Pollan is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and, most recently, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.
 (June 2010)

Michael Dirda, a weekly book columnist for The Washington Post, received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. He is the author of the memoir An Open Book and of four collections of essays: Readings, Bound to Please, Book by Book, and Classics for Pleasure. His latest book, On Conan Doyle, is part of Princeton’s “Writers on Writers” series. Dirda graduated with Highest Honors in English from Oberlin College and earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature (medieval studies and European romanticism) from Cornell University. He is a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, the online Barnes & Noble Review, and several other periodicals, as well as a frequent lecturer and an occasional college teacher. (February 2012)

Jeff Madrick teaches at Cooper Union. His latest book, Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present, was published in May. Frank Partnoy is the George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance at the University of San Diego. His most recent book is The Match King: The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals. (November 2011)

Geoffrey O’Brien is Editor in Chief of the Library of America. His latest books are The Fall of the House of Walworth and Early Autumn. 
(September 2011)

Robert Gildea is Professor of Modern History at Oxford University. His most recent book is Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799–1914. (June 2010)

Robert Gottlieb has been Editor in Chief of Simon and Schuster, Knopf, and The New Yorker. His most recent book is Lives and Letters. (September 2011)

Anthony Lewis, a former columnist for The New York Times, has twice won the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book is Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment.

Adam Kirsch is a senior editor at The New Republic and a contributing editor to Tablet. His most recent book of poetry is Invasions. (February 2012)

Benjamin is the New Books columnist for Harper’s and the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector. He lives in the Netherlands. (June 2010)

William Pfaff’s latest book, The Irony of Manifest Destiny, was published last year. He is a former board member of the Social Science Research Council.
 (November 2011)

Gordon Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown. His latest book is The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States. (November 2011)

José Manuel Prieto is a novelist and translator. His latest novel is Rex. (May 2011)

Alexander Stille is San Paolo Professor of International Journalism at Columbia. His most recent book is The Sack of Rome: Money + Media + Celebrity = Power = Silvio Berlusconi. (April 2010)