Five L&S professors receive Romnes Fellowships

March 14th 2017 | Natasha Kassulke
Awards, Faculty
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Eleven promising young members of the UW–Madison faculty have been honored with Romnes Faculty Fellowships.

Romnes awards recognize exceptional faculty members who have earned tenure within the last six years. The awards are supported by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

The award is named for the late H.I. Romnes, former chairman of the board of AT&T and former president of the WARF Board of Trustees.

2017 L&S Romnes Faculty Fellows


John Berry, professor of chemistry, studies coordination chemistry and catalysis. The Berry Group has developed novel synthetic, spectroscopic and computational methods to examine structure and bonding in compounds that are unstable, highly reactive, or simply show unusual properties. Berry teaches inorganic and general chemistry, serves as a journal editor and enjoys writing music.

Lisa H. Cooper, associate professor of English, studies and teaches late medieval literature, including drama, romance, travel narrative and the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer. A former UW–Madison Vilas Associate and a current fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, she is working on a book about the literary qualities of medieval practical works such as farming manuals, recipe collections, astronomical treatises and medical texts.

Felix Elwert, associate professor of sociology, studies how families, neighborhoods and social networks determine who gets ahead in life. He has published on the importance of marriage for survival and the role of neighborhoods in educational success. Elwert is an award-wining teacher who is particularly dedicated to undergraduate education. He regularly teaches customized short courses on causal inference lasting anywhere from a day to a week across the United States and Europe.

Jason Fletcher, professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Sociology, studies the integration of genomic and social sciences as well as health economics and policy. He focuses on understanding how genetic, environmental and policy factors intersect to shape population health and education outcomes. He teaches courses in social network analysis, biodemography and policy analysis.

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen is the Merle Curti Associate Professor of History and specializes in U.S. intellectual and cultural history in trans-Atlantic perspective. Her first book was awarded prizes from the American Historical Association, the Journal of the History of Ideas, and the Society for U.S. Intellectual History. She is currently writing a history of “wisdom” in American thought and a “Very Short Introduction to American Intellectual History” for Oxford University Press. Ratner-Rosenhagen teaches courses on themes in American intellectual and cultural history.

Read more about Romnes recipients across campus at news.wisc.edu.