HSS
California Institute of Technology
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Humanities and Social Sciences at Caltech

Welcome to the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), one of six academic units at the California Institute of Technology.
Within HSS, the Humanities Faculty comprises elements of history, literature, philosophy, history of science, and various languages. The Social Science Faculty draws together an interdisciplinary group of scholars working across the fields of anthropology, economics, finance, law, political science, psychology, and neuroscience.

Division News

Charles Plott has been selected by the American Economic Association as one of their "Distinguished Fellows" for the year 2008. He is one of only three economists to be chosen for this honor. [Posted May 7, 2008]

Thomas R. Palfrey Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: Caltech professor Thomas Palfrey is among the 190 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year. He joins an assembly that was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholars to provide practical solutions to pressing issues. [Posted May 1, 2008]

HSS Chair Named: July 22 2007 - Jonathan N. Katz, professor of political science, has been named chair of the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, effective August 1. Known for his expertise in voting problems, he is codirector of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project. He came to Caltech as an assistant professor in 1995, the same year he received his PhD from UC San Diego, becoming associate professor in 1998 and professor in 2003. [Posted Aug 28, 2007]

HSS Executive Officer for the Social Sciences Named: Jean-Laurent Rosenthal will take over the position of Executive Officer for the Social Sciences starting September 1, 2007. Jean-Laurent has recently returned to Caltech - he received his Ph.D. in Social Sciences in 1988 - as a Professor of Economics after a number of years on the faculty of the economics department at UCLA. Jean-Laurent is an outstanding researcher who has made substantial contributions to the field of economic history. He has been the recipient of many prizes and fellowships over the course of his career. His dissertation was awarded Caltech's prestigious Clauser Doctoral Prize and he has been an NSF Young Investigator and Guggenheim Fellow. [Posted Aug 28, 2007]

Plott elected to NAS Charles Plott, Harkness Professor of Economics and Political Science, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Signed into being by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is called upon "to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology." Election to the academy is considered one of the highest U.S. honors in science and engineering. [Posted May 31, 2007]

Caltech Senior Jean Sun Wins Writing Trifecta Sun, who is completing a double major in biology and English, won all three of this year's prizes in the annual Mary A. Earl McKinney writing competition. [Posted May 10, 2007]