Terrie Wetle, inaugural dean of the School of Public Health, and John Michael Kosterlitz, professor of physics and Nobel laureate, will be awarded the Susan Colver Rosenberger Medal of Honor at Sunday’s Commencement ceremony.
The award is “the highest honor the Brown University faculty can bestow” and is being given in recognition of the two professors’ “decades of leadership, scholarship and mentorship,” according to a University press release.
Wetle and Kosterlitz were selected to receive the honor following a months-long nomination and review process that culminated in a faculty-wide vote during the April faculty meeting. On Sunday, the two will join the ranks of the 36 Brown community members who have been awarded the medal since its establishment in 1919.
Terrie Wetle
Wetle, who is also a professor emerita of health services, policy and practice, found out she would be receiving the medal after she was told not to attend the final part of the April faculty meeting.
“Afterwards, I was sitting in my office, and one of the nominators walked in and she said, ‘Well, the faculty just voted to award you the Rosenberger,’” Wetle recalled. “I hugged her and started to cry.”
“I’ve given a large part of my career to Brown and to building the School of Public Health and to working collaboratively with my colleagues and with students and with junior faculty. And it just feels so, so good,” she added.
Wetle, who arrived at Brown in 2000, said her milestone achievements include the accreditation of the Masters of Public Health in 2002 and the establishment of the SPH in 2013. When she began at Brown, Brown’s public health program consisted of just one department. Today, it is a separate school with four departments and over 400 faculty.
Although Wetle has retired from Brown, she still regularly gives lectures, serves on committees and mentors students, she told The Herald.
Rosa Baier MPH’04, director of the SPH’s Center for Long-Term Care Quality and Innovation, and Theresa Shireman, director of the Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research at the SPH, nominated Wetle for the award.
According to Baier, Wetle’s “recent retirement felt like the right moment to recognize her extraordinary and visionary leadership with the highest honor Brown faculty can bestow.”
“She built the School of Public Health from the ground up — establishing its identity, fostering a collaborative and inclusive culture and elevating Brown’s presence on the national public health stage,” Baier wrote in an email to The Herald. “Along the way, she mentored countless students, staff and faculty, always with warmth, humility and a clear sense of purpose.”
“But for those of us who’ve worked with her closely, the most powerful thing has always been how she leads — with clarity, generosity and heart,” Baier wrote. “She changed institutions, yes. But she also changed people’s lives.”
John Michael Kosterlitz
Kosterlitz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016, described his reaction to finding out he would receive the medal as “very surprised,” adding that he doesn’t consider himself a “particularly good teacher.”
“I feel very surprised and pleased and honored because I didn’t expect that my colleagues thought that highly of me,” he said.
Kosterlitz has been a faculty member at Brown since 1982. Although he plans to officially retire at the end of the next academic year, he hopes to continue his research.
“There’s always some new problem to be solved, and no matter how old I get, I’m always fascinated by these new problems,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll ever lose interest.”
Kosterlitz was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on matter’s phase transitions in two-dimensional systems. “In physics, no matter how much you think you know and how many problems one solves, there are always more. That’s basically why I love physics,” he said.
Kosterlitz emphasized that pursuing something without enjoying it is not “worth doing” — a belief he frequently shares with his students.
“The most important thing in life is to have fun, or in other words, enjoy what you’re doing,” he said.
As for his legacy at Brown, Kosterlitz hopes to leave behind a reputation of being a “good physicist” and “a nice guy — somebody worth knowing.”
Samah Hamid is a senior staff writer at the Herald. She is from Sharon, Massachusetts and plans to concentrate in Biology. In her free time, you can find her taking a nap, reading, or baking a sweet treat.
