ANN ARBOR—Sixteen University of Michigan faculty members were given the emeritus title by the U-M Regents at their June 17 meeting.
Those retiring are David Aminoff, professor of biological chemistry; A. Kent Christensen, professor of anatomy and cell biology and research scientist; Colin W. Clipson, professor of architecture; Thomas M. Dunn, professor of chemistry; Floyd F. Gray, professor of French;
Luisa Lopez-Grigera, professor of Spanish; Steven J. Milles, associate professor of mathematics at the U-M-Dearborn; Robert H. Paslick, associate professor of German; Richard C. Porter, professor of economics; John T. Santinga, associate professor of internal medicine; Arlene P. Shy, librarian;
Alan W. Steiss, professor of urban planning; Robert M. Stern, professor of economics and public policy and professor of public policy; Robert S. Tickle, professor of physics; Kenneth B. West, professor of history at the U-M-Flint; and Alfred C-T. Wu, professor of physics.
Aminoff, who joined the U-M as a research associate in the Rackham Arthritis Research Unite in 1960, was promoted to assistant professor of biological chemistry in 1966 and became professor in 1980. “At the Simpson Memorial Institute,” the Regents said, “he continued his interest in red blood cells, working on the development of a universal blood donor type for transfusion and studying the mechanism for clearance or senescent erythrocytes from circulation. In 1985-91 he was a research scientist in the Institute of Gerontology, exploring further the mechanism of cellular aging. He then returned to the Department of Biological Chemistry.”
Christensen, who came the U-M as professor and chair of the Department of Anatomy in 1978, has had “a distinguished career as a cell biologist. His laboratory research contributions have concentrated on the cell biology of the testis, polysome ultrastructure, and designing techniques for the preparation of ultrathin frozen sections at the electron microscopic level. A major local contribution was his establishment of the Cell Biology Laboratories, a microscopy core facility at the U-M. As chair, he was instrumental in introducing a significant emphasis on cell biology, in addition to changing the department name from anatomy to anatomy and cell biology.”
Clipson, who joined the U-M faculty in 1969, “has integrated graduate and doctoral level courses in design and in human factors with an active program in design research,” the Regents said. “He served as chair of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning’s research program in 1982-89. In the mid-1980s, he directed a national design research project with major U.S. corporations titled ‘The Competitive Edge: The Role of Design in American Corporations.’ He has been a project director with the NASA Ames Space Research Center, working on space station simulations and evaluating ways in which Ames simulation research may be integrated with space station design development.”
Dunn joined the U-M faculty in 1963, serving as chair of the Department of Chemistry in 1972-83. “His research interests have centered on the field of electronic spectroscopy,” the Regents noted. “He was one of the earliest workers in large-molecule spectroscopy, having studied large organic aromatic molecules by high-resolution methods. His earliest research efforts at Michigan were focused on the electronic spectroscopy of inorganic complexes and the development of crystal field theory, an area that played a pivotal role in the renaissance of inorganic chemistry in the 50s and 60s. He achieved widespread recognition for his spectroscopic studies of gas phase, non-hydride, and diatomic molecules.”
Gray joined the U-M faculty in 1956. “An internationally renowned authority on the literature of the French Renaissance, he is acknowledged as one of the two or three preeminent North American scholars in this field. Several of his books, which are all written in French, are considered classics in their field. His work is characterized not only by it erudition, but also by its elegance and judiciousness. Prof. Gray has taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses and has directed a large number of dissertations. Many of his doctoral students have gone on to become leading scholars at major universities.”
Lopez-Grigera, who joined the U-M faculty in 1975, is “a specialist in Spanish literature of the 16th and 17th centuries, known as the Golden Age. She is an internationally respected expert on the works of Frencisco de Quevedo, a major canonical literary figure of the period, as well as on Spanish rhetoric in the 16th century. She has produced important editions of several of Quevedo’s prose works and recently discovered and edited an important hitherto lost text by this writer. While at Michigan, Prof. Lopes-Grigera directed 20 doctoral dissertations, of which several have been published as books.”
Milles, who joined the U-M-Dearborn in 1971, has “an outstanding record of service to the University and to the mathematical community of the Detroit metropolitan area. He served as chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for two consecutive terms, in 1983-89, and was acting chair during 1992-93. Prof. Milles’ commitment to the teaching of mathematics is as sincere as his commitment to public service. His classroom teaching is noted for high standards and high expectations of student achievement.”
Paslick joined the U-M faculty in 1961. “An active and committed teacher of undergraduate courses in German language and literature, Prof. Paslick regularly served on undergraduate prize selection committees and fellowship committees. He served as the German concentration adviser for eight years and was for many years also a general undergraduate counselor. In 1968, he received the Sinclair Award for Academic Counseling for exemplary service in the latter capacity. Prof. Paslick’s linguistic abilities were formidable: he worked in nine different languages, including Ancient Greek, Russian, and Sanskrit.”
Porter joined the U-M faculty in 1964. “His research has focused on problems in economic development and on resource and environmental economics. Within these fields, his focus has been broad. A sample of topics include: improving farming techniques of poor farmers, instability of prices of primary goods produced by many developing countries, water supply and waste disposal, taxing the supply of depletable resources, benefit-cost analysis of mandatory deposits on beverage containers, and the economics of the automobile. He served as associate director of the Center for Research on Economic Development in 1974-78, associate chair of the Department of Economics in 1981-84, and chair in 1986-89.”
Santinga, who joined the U-M faculty in 1970, “has played a key role as a highly respected clinician and teacher linking programs in cardiology and geriatric medicine and has achieved national recognition for his scholarly efforts in this growing area of medicine. He has lectured widely and published a number of important book chapters on the subject of heart disease in older adults. He has been a key participant and collaborator in a project focusing on self-management and behavior of women with heart disease. Dr. Santinga has also had an appointment as a faculty associate at the Institute of Gerontology and was medical director at Glacier Hills Nursing Center in Ann Arbor in 1986-96.”
Shy joined the U-M in 1973 as assistant librarian at the Clements Library. “As part of the Library’s bicentennial celebration of the American Revolution, she mounted notable exhibits and authored related publications on the Boston Tea Party and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. She also edited letters of Edmund Quincy, father-in-law of patriot John Hancock, as part of the Library’s series of publications commemorating the War of Independence. She became curator of manuscripts in 1977 and in 1978 edited the ‘Guide to the Manuscript Collections of the William L. Clements Library.'”
Steiss, who joined U-M faculty in 1988, served as director of the Division of Research Development and Administration in 1988-96. “He has taught graduate level courses in urban and regional planning, public administration, urban affairs, and public health policy and administration. He has also served as adviser to doctoral and master candidates. The author of 19 books and numerous journal articles in public planning and administration, he has had an outstanding career in teaching and research. Recent academic work has focused on efforts to formulate a more integrated basis for financial planning and management procedures, with particular applications to local governments and the field of public health.”
Stern, who joined the U-M faculty in 1961, is “widely respected for his work in international economics,” the Regents said. “Early in his career, his focus was on the relationship between trade and economic development. More recently, he has turned his attention to trade among industrialized countries as well, studying both bilateral relationships and multilateral trade-liberalization initiatives. He has organized numerous conferences on trade and trade policy, helping to make Michigan an internationally recognized center for international economics. All of these contributions reflect the breadth of his intellectual interests and his belief in the importance of trade to improving living conditions around the world.
Tickle joined the U-M faculty in 1960. “During the early 1960s, he was a major contributor to the design and construction of the University’s sector focused cyclotron located on the North Campus. After completion of the cyclotron and its associated magnetic analysis system, he was among the first to conduct high-resolution experimental studies of light-ion induced nuclear reactions in the lead region of the periodic table. The results were instrumental in establishing the shell structure of nuclei in the region. Throughout his 39-year career at the University, he maintained a strong interest in teaching at the undergraduate level, especially the large introductory physics courses.”
West joined the U-M-Flint faculty in 1966. “Active in labor studies, he helped found the U-M-Flint Labor Studies Program. Within the Popular Culture Association, he served on the governing board in 1992-95 and established the area of Working Class Culture, which he chaired in 1988-97. He has also served on the Education and History Committee of the Historic Flint Autoworld Foundation and on the board of the Genesee County Historical Society. In 1976, he organized and chaired the American Bicentennial Conference, ‘American in 1976: Revolutionary of Counter-revolutionary?'”
Wu, who joined the U-M faculty in 1962, “has worked in the area of quantum field theory, particle physics, applications of group theory, and quantum groups. He did the first explicit calculation in closed form of the fourth order scattering amplitude in perturbation theory. Later, by applying the method of stationary phase to the Lorentz group manifold, Prof. Wu was able to give a new and concise derivation of the analyticity of the universal singular function in local field theory. On the practical side, he has done calculations on the production cross sections of the W bosons from the neutrinos and from the photon.”

Institute of Gerontology