Jon Wilkenfeld
Michele appeared in my office in the Government and Politics Department at Maryland 25 years ago, accompanied by a somewhat dubious-looking Psychology Department professor. She was being interviewed for a position in the Psychology Department and had asked if she could meet with me. Although I am a political scientist, Michele had taken an interest in my work on conflict and crisis behavior, and she wanted to explore the extent to which an interdisciplinary collaboration might be possible. In a sense she was interviewing me, in the way that most star recruits check things out while being checked out themselves. Needless to say, I was totally overwhelmed even then with the depth of her interdisciplinary knowledge and interests. Over the years, we have often collaborated in the training of graduate students, secured research grants, and published our joint research in interdisciplinary journals.
At first I was surprised that Michele’s appointment at Stanford will be in their business school, with a courtesy appointment in psychology. But really, who could pull this off better than Michele, who has crossed disciplinary lines since her earliest days at Maryland. Our great loss is Stanford’s great gain, and I hope that Michele will continue to push the limits of research, in line with her creative mind and her uncompromising attention to scientific rigor. Best of luck.