Meet Our Faculty

Farah Jasmine Griffin is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African American Studies at Columbia University, where she also served as the inaugural Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies department. Professor Griffin received her B.A. in History & Literature from Harvard and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale.

Professor Bilgrami's interests predominantly reside in two spheres: Philosophy of Mind and Language, and Political Philosophy and Moral Psychology. He is interested in these philosophical and psychological realms specifically in the context of politics, the political economy history, and culture. He has published books have covered a broad breadth of topics from secularism to a comparison between Enlightenment ideals and Gandhi's philosophy.

Adam Tooze teaches and researches widely in the fields of twentieth-century and contemporary history. From a start in modern German history with a special focus on the history of economics and economic history, his interests have widened to take in a range of themes in political, intellectual and military history, across a canvass stretching from Europe across the Atlantic. His most recent book was Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (2018).

Audra Simpson is a political anthropologist whose work is focused on contextualizing the force and consequences of governance through time, space and bodies. Her research and writing is rooted within Indigenous polities in the US and Canada and crosses the fields of anthropology, Indigenous Studies, American and Canadian Studies, gender and sexuality studies as well as politics. Her recent research is a genealogy of affective governance and extraction across the US and Canada.

Denise Cruz is the recipient of the 2021 Columbia University Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. She is a scholar of gender and sexuality, with special interests in the Philippines and Asian American literature. Her work covers a range of subjects, from connections between the rise of English literature and women’s suffrage in Manila, to the vibrant world of Filipino high fashion, to the strategies Asian American authors use to represent regional, national, and transnational communities.

Elizabeth Blackmar, Mary and David Boies Professor of History, specializes in social history of American property relations and the built environment. She received her B.A. from Smith and her Ph.D. from Harvard. She is known for her book The Park and the People: A History of Central Park.

Dennis Yi Tenen is an associate professor of English and a co-director of the Center for Comparative Media. His research happens at the intersection of people, text, and technology. A long-time affiliate of Columbia’s Data Science Institute, formerly a Microsoft engineer in the Windows group and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, his code runs on millions of personal computers worldwide.

Emmanuelle Saada’s main field of research and teaching is the history of the French empire in the 19th and 20th century, with a specific interest in law. Her first book, Les enfants de la colonie: les métis de l'Empire français entre sujétion et citoyenneté, was published in France in 2007 and translated in 2012 under the title Empire’s Children: Race, Filiation and Citizenship in the French Colonies (University of Chicago Press).

Jenny Davidson writes about eighteenth-century literature and culture. Her other interests include British cultural and intellectual history and the contemporary novel in English. She is the author of four novels: Heredity (2003),The Explosionist (2008), Invisible Things (2010), and The Magic Circle (2013).

Andrew Delbanco, winner of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, was named by Time Magazine as "America's Best Social Critic" in 2001 and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In February 2012, President Barack Obama presented Professor Delbanco with the National Humanities Medal for his writings on higher education and the place classic authors hold in history and contemporary life.

Frances Negrón-Muntaner is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and scholar. She is the recipient of Ford, Truman, Scripps Howard, Rockefeller, and Pew fellowships as well as a Social Science Research Council and Andy Warhol Foundation grants. She is the author of Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture and the editor of several books. Among Negrón-Muntaner's films are AIDS in the Barrio, Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican, and War for Guam.

Anders Stephanson specializes in 20th-century American foreign relations as well as history and theory. He received a B.A. from Gothenburg (1975), an M.Phil from Oxford (1977), and a Ph.D. from Columbia (1986). His published works include Kennan and the Art of Foreign Policy (1989) and Manifest Destiny (1995). He is working on a historiographical book on diplomatic history and a work tentatively entitled The United States as a Cold War.

Josef Sorett is a professor of Religion and African-American Studies and a frequent contributor to media outlets including the New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC and NPR. He is an interdisciplinary scholar of religion and race in the Americas. Professor Sorett was appointed Dean of Columbia College in May 2022.

Shree K. Nayar is the T. C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. He heads the Columbia Vision Laboratory (CAVE), which develops computational imaging and computer vision systems. His work is motivated by applications in the fields of imaging, computer vision, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, visual communication, computer graphics and human-computer interfaces.

Laura Kaufman ’97CC is a professor of Chemistry, the chair of the Department of Chemistry and a Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Member. She specializes in physical chemistry and runs an interdisciplinary lab that focuses on the dynamics of complex, crowded systems. 

Brian Greene is a world-renowned physicist and mathematician who is known for his contributions to string theory, most significantly mirror symmetry and spatial topology change. His current interests reside in high-energy nuclear/particle physics. He is furthermore a pioneer of scientific public outreach, as the chairman of the World Science Festival, which he co-founded in 2008. 

David Kipping received his B.A. and M.Sc. in Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, UK followed by a Ph.D. from University College London, UK. Before joining Columbia University, Kipping spent time at Harvard as a postdoc through the Sagan and Menzel fellowships. His research is focused on extrasolar planets, moons and rings, stellar rotation, granulation and limb darkening, and astrostatistics.

Elena Aprile received the “Laurea” in Physics from the University of Naples, Italy and the PhD in Physics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard University before joining the faculty of the Columbia Physics Department. Professor Aprile is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Dustin Rubenstein is the Director of the Center for Integrative Animal Behavior and Chair of the University Seminar in the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, as well as an Affiliate Member of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and a Faculty Mentor in the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior.

Elena Giorgi is an assistant professor of mathematics. Her research focuses on the stability of black holes as solutions to the Einstein equation, with an emphasis on the interaction between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation.

Galen McKinley is Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. She is an ocean, carbon cycle and climate scientist. Her research focuses on the physical, chemical and ecological drivers of the global ocean’s uptake of anthropogenic carbon. 

Professor Chalfie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the introduction of green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a biological marker. He looks forward to his work with Columbia undergrads because they are fun to work with and eager to learn. He considers it a privilege to share in that excitement of discovery and enjoys watching his students become independent scholars.

Christine P. Hendon is a professor of electrical engineering with research interests in systems biology and neuroengineering. She is interested in developing optical imaging and spectroscopy instruments for applications in cardiac electrophysiology and interventional cardiology. 

Hod Lipson is a roboticist who works in the areas of artificial intelligence and digital manufacturing. He teaches mechanical engineering and data science and is a co-author of the award-winning book Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing and Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead. He directs the Creative Machines Lab, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create and machines that are themselves creative.

Keren Bergman serves as the Faculty Director of the Columbia Nano Initiative. Prof. Bergman received the B.S. from Bucknell University in 1988, and the M.S. in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1994 from M.I.T. all in Electrical Engineering. At Columbia, Bergman leads the Lightwave Research Laboratory encompassing multiple cross-disciplinary programs at the intersection of computing and photonics.

David Vallancourt is Senior Lecturer in Circuits and Systems in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He received the BS (1981), MS (1983), and PhD (1987) degrees from Columbia, and has worked at Bell Labs. Dr. Vallancourt’s focus at Bell Labs and subsequent positions at Texas Instruments, Vitesse Semiconductor, and PMC-Sierra was analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design for communications applications.

Elham Azizi is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Cancer Data Research. Her work aims to characterize the complex populations of interacting cell types in the tumor microenvironment and their underlying circuitry by leveraging cutting-edge single-cell genomic technologies.

Kyle Bishop and his research team are developing colloidal machines, in which micro- and nanoscale components assemble spontaneously to perform dynamic functions inspired by living systems. He has research experience as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, and his research interests include colloidal materials and machines, active soft matter, self-assembly, and microfluidics.

Helen Lu is the director of the Biomaterials and Interface Tissue Engineering Laboratory. Her research focuses on tissue interfaces, particularly how to reestablish the body’s natural synchrony between tissues, a hallmark of the musculoskeletal system and the nexus of human mobility.

Mike Massimino was a NASA astronaut for almost 20 years with two space trips and four spacewalks to his name. He teaches and advises research in spaceflight topics including human factors, robotics, extra-vehicular activity (spacewalking), displays and controls, and planetary exploration.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned economist, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development. Sachs is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including the escape from extreme poverty, the global battle against human-induced climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases. 

Angela Simms's research examines how legacy and contemporary market and government processes in metropolitan areas shape racial inequality, with particular focus on the suburban Black middle class. Before academia, she was a Presidential Management Fellow and legislative analyst for seven years at the federal government agency the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the Executive Office of the U.S. President, serving in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. 

Lee C. Bollinger is the President Emeritus of Columbia University, which he led for over two decades, from 2002 to 2023. He is a renowned First Amendment scholar and serves as Columbia's Seth Low Professor and a faculty member at the Law School. He has served on the Pulitzer Prize Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Each fall semester, he teaches “Freedom of Speech and Press” to Columbia undergraduate students. 

Carl Hart is widely published and a frequent guest of podcasts, radio and television shows like Real Time with Bill Maher. His work focuses on the area of neuropsychopharmacology. Specifically, his work seeks to understand factors that mediate drug self-administration behavior, and to develop effective treatments.

Dr. Cogburn directs a research group that uses innovative means to characterize and measure racism and evaluate its effects on mental and physical health. She is also conducting research exploring the use of emerging technologies, including computational social science to examine patterns and psychosocial effects of cultural racism and how virtual reality experiences can lead to changes in attitudes, social perception and engagement (empathy, racial bias, structural competence and behavior).

Sunil Gulati is a lecturer in international economics and the former four-term president of the US Soccer Federation. He was previously an economist with the World Bank and a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.

Andrew Gelman has received the Outstanding Statistical Application award three times from the American Statistical Association, the award for best article published in the American Political Science Review, the Mitchell and DeGroot prizes from the International Society of Bayesian Analysis, and the Council of Presidents of Statistical Societies award. 

Elaine Sisman is the Anne Parsons Bender Professor of Music and returning Chair of Music Humanities. Her research interests are the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, issues of musical meaning and persuasion, biography and late style, and the Enlightenment imagination. She has served as department chair and president of the American Musicological Society and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014.

Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music. Her book Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia (2014) was awarded the Alan Merriam Prize by the Society for Ethnomusicology. She writes on music and cultural policy, forced silence and armed conflict, and genealogies of listening and sound in Latin America and the Caribbean.

James Schamus teaches film history and theory and is the former CEO of Focus Features. He has collaborated as screenwriter and producer with director Ang Lee on eleven films, including Brokeback Mountain. Other films include Moonrise Kingdom, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Kids are All Right, The Pianist, Coraline and The Dallas Buyers Club.