Biologist Joan E. Strassmann, PhD, was installed Jan. 23 as the Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences in a ceremony in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall.
“An endowed professorship is the highest-level appointment that we can make, and Professor Strassmann joins a very distinguished group of fellow chair holders who have made a big difference in the life of this community,” Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said.
The Rebstock professorship was established in 1925 with a bequest from Charles Rebstock, a distiller who became a philanthropist on the eve of Prohibition in 1920 and whose generosity also made possible the construction of Rebstock Hall for biology and botany. The professorship was previously held by Alan Templeton, PhD, who became emeritus last year. Strassmann was Templeton’s first PhD student.
Strassmann was introduced by Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor. Strassmann earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Michigan and a PhD, also in zoology, from the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation explored theories of social behavior and evolution using individually marked social wasps in wild colonies, Schaal said.
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