Faculty Join Esteemed Ranks of Professors Emeriti

Faculty Join Esteemed Ranks of
Professors Emeriti

BY LISA
NUTTING

Rice News Staff

May 7, 1998

For Rice’s recently named professors emeriti, the
newly bestowed titles add prestige to their already well-rounded
curriculum vitae.

New professors emeriti are: Robert Haymes, space physics and
astronomy; David Hellums, chemical engineering and bioengineering; Deiter Heymann, geology and
geophysics; Sydney Lamb, linguistics; John
Merwin, civil engineering; Hally Beth Poindexter, health
and human performance; Fred von der
Mehden, political science; Joseph Wilson, German and Slavic
studies. Lecturer emerita is Anita
Kiperman, Hispanic and classical
studies.

Robert Haymes

After 24 years at Rice, Haymes, professor of space
physics and astronomy and master of Brown College, has been named
professor emeritus.

At New York University, Haymes received a bachelor
of arts degree in physics in 1952, a master of science in physics in
1952, and a doctorate of physics in 1959. He then served the
university faculty as an assistant professor of physics from 1959 to
1962.

In 1962, Haymes became a resident research
appointee at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.

He left the institute in 1964 to join the Rice
faculty as an assistant professor of space science. In 1966, Haymes
was named associate professor of space science and became full
professor of space physics and astronomy in 1972.

From 1982 to ’87, he held the position of chairman
of the Department of Space Physics and Astronomy.

Haymes also served the university as master of
Will Rice College from 1982 to 1987 and has been master of Brown
College since 1993.

David Hellums

Hellums, the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical
Engineering and professor of bioengineering, joined the Rice faculty
in 1960.

At the University of Texas-Austin, Hellums earned
a bachelor of science in 1950 and a master of science in 1958. He
continued his education at the University of Michigan, earning his
doctorate in ’61.

In 1964, Hellums became a founding member of
Rice’s Biomedical Engineering Lab and later was director of the lab
for 10 years. He also served as chair of the Department of Chemical
Engineering for six years.

From 1980 to 1988, he held the position of dean of
engineering.

Hellums has served as an adjunct professor in the
Department of Medicine at both Baylor College of Medicine and the
University of Texas Health Science Center.

He is also an associate of Wiess College.

Deiter Heymann

Heymann held several positions before coming to
Rice in 1966 as an associate professor of geology and
geophysics.

Heyman earned both a master of science degree in
chemistry in 1954 and a doctorate in chemistry in 1958 from the
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

From 1954 to ’59, Heymann worked for the
Laboratory of Mass Spectronomy in Amsterdam. He served as a
postdoctoral fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1959 to
’61 and was again employed at the Laboratory for Spectronomy as a
senior scientist from 1961 to ’63. He was a research associate at the
University of Chicago from 1963 to ’66, at which time he joined the
Rice faculty.

In 1971, Heymann was promoted to full professor of
geology and geophysics and of space physics and astronomy. He is also
an associate of Lovett College.

Sydney Lamb

Topping off a career that has included over 40
years of teaching, Lamb has been named a professor emeritus.

Lamb, the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of
Linguistics and professor of cognitive sciences at Rice, earned a
bachelor of arts degree from Yale University in 1951. In 1958, he
received a doctorate from the University of California,
Berkeley.

Lamb joined the University of California,
Berkeley, as an instructor in linguistics in 1956. He was promoted to
assistant professor in 1958 and became associate professor in
1961.

He served Yale University as an associate
professor from 1964 to ’68 and was full professor from 1968 to
’77.

Lamb joined the Rice faculty as professor of
linguistics and semiotics in 1981. He was named the Agnes Cullen
Arnold Professor of Linguistics in 1983 and professor of cognitive
sciences in 1996. He has also served as director of the Cognitive
Sciences Program.

John Merwin

After a Rice career spanning nearly five decades,
Merwin, a professor of civil engineering, has been named a professor
emeritus.

Merwin came to Rice in 1948 as an undergraduate
studying mechanical engineering. He earned a bachelor of arts in
mechanical engineering in 1952, following up with a bachelor of
science in 1953. In the fall of ’53, he was hired as a Rice
instructor in civil engineering while he also worked full time on his
master of science degree, which he completed in 1955.

In 1955, Merwin became an assistant professor of
civil engineering. In 1966 he was promoted to associate professor and
he became full professor of civil engineering in 1978.

In the past 50 years, Merwin left Rice just twice:
first, from 1958-61 to attend the University of Cambridge at England,
where he earned his doctorate degree; and second, for a sabbatical
leave in 1967-68.

Hally Beth Poindexter

A 1947 graduate of Rice, Poindexter held several
positions before returning to Rice full time in 1965 as an associate
professor of health and physical education.

Upon receiving her bachelor of arts degree from
Rice, Poindexter took on positions ranging from teaching elementary
school and serving as an instructor at Rice to working as an adviser
for the USA Girl Scouts in the Far East, at Tokyo, and a visiting
professor at Tsuda College in Tokyo.

Continuing her education, she earned a bachelor of
science degree from the University of Houston in 1949, a master’s
degree at the University of Northern Colorado in 1950, and a
doctorate in education from Columbia University in 1957.

During 1967-69, Poindexter took on the role as
associate dean of students at Rice, while also serving as a
professor. Between 1969 and 1979, she held the position of professor
of health and physical education at the University of Houston, but
maintained a visiting professor status at Rice during that
time.

In 1979, Poindexter again returned to Rice full
time and became chair and professor of the Department of Human
Performance & Health Sciences. She has also served as an
associate of Jones College.

Fred von der Mehden

The Albert Thomas Professor of Political Science
and professor of administrative science, von der Mehden has
specialized in Asian politics and religious factors in economics and
politics at Rice.

After receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the
University of the Pacific, von der Mehden continued his education,
earning a master’s degree at Claremont Graduate School in 1950 and a
doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1957.

He joined the faculty of the University of
Wisconsin as an assistant professor in 1957 and by 1968 von der
Mehden was tenured and assigned as director of East-Asian
Studies.

Joining the Rice faculty 1968, von der Mehden
became the Albert Thomas Professor of Political Science and has
served as an associate of Wiess College.

He has written a dozen books, including “Two
Worlds of Islam: Interaction Between Middle East and Southeast Asia”
and “Religion and Modernization in Southeast Asia.”

Joseph Wilson

With the exception of a year of study in Stockholm
and a couple of years of study at Stanford University, Wilson, a Rice
professor of German, has devoted his career to Rice.

Wilson received a bachelor of arts degree at Rice
in 1950 and studied at the University of Stockholm in 1950-51. He
returned to Rice to complete a master of arts in 1953. He later
earned a doctorate from Stanford University in 1960.

To help fund his education, Wilson worked several
years as a structural steel draftsman. While in school, he also
served as a teaching assistant at Rice as well as at Stanford, and he
held the position of Rice instructor of German from 1954 to
’57.

Wilson became assistant professor at Rice in 1957,
associate professor in 1963 and full professor in 1986.

Anita Kiperman

Kiperman has held a variety of positions in
addition to serving as a lecturer in Hispanic and classical studies
at Rice since 1974 and an instructor for Rice’s School of Continuing
Studies. She was recently named lecturer emerita.

Kiperman received a bachelor of arts degree in
1957 from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. She later earned
a master of arts from the University of Houston in 1971.

During her career, she has worked as a teaching
fellow at the Uni-versity of Houston, a visiting lecturer at Rice
(1972-73), an instructor at the University of St. Thomas and an
instructor at Rice’s Translation Institute (1981-82). She has also
done free-lance translating and consulting for the health care
professions and other businesses.

Kiperman has been an associate of Hanszen College
since 1980 and was faculty sponsor of HACER, the Hispanic student
organization, in 1993.