Rose McDermott Honored with CASBS Fellowship

Professor Rose McDermott has been selected to be a fellow at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University for the academic year 2008-2009. The Center for Advanced Study is an independent organization dedicated to advanced knowledge about human behavior through research.

In prior years, fellowship applications were accepted by invitation only, but this year the Center decided to pursue a more inclusive open application process. For the 2008-2009 fellowship class, 40 out of 45 participants from 13 different disciplines were selected from the applicants, with the remainder coming from invitations issued in prior years. Another change is that two particular research foci were emphasized for the 2008-2009 class: Race and Global Public Health. The purpose of this change is to encourage greater interdisciplinary convergence among particpants who have similar interests.

During her fellowship year, Professor McDermott will be working on a book topic that she has been interested in for several years: the impact of pandemic disease on international security, a topic that falls under the Global Public Health emphasis of her fellowship cohort. This subject builds on her previous work, including her latest book, Presidential Illness, Leadership and Decision Making, due from Cambridge University Press at the end of 2007.