Doctoral Dissertation Advisors

Every dissertation written as part of the requirements for a GSAS doctoral degree must be advised by a faculty member who has been named as an approved dissertation advisor in the degree candidate's program. For more information about PhD or DMA degree advisors, please review the information available here. The list of approved doctoral dissertation advisors in each program appears below.

Ex Officio Dissertation Advisors

Lee C. Bollinger 
President of the University 
Professor of Law
BS, Oregon; JD, Columbia

Mary Boyce
Provost of the University
Dean of The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor of Engineering
BS, Virginia Tech; MS, PhD MIT

Lee Goldman 
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences
Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine
Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor of the University
Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology
BA, MD, Yale

Carlos J. Alonso 
Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 
Vice President for Graduate Education
Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor in the Humanities 
Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures 
BA, Cornell; PhD, Yale

James J. Valentini 
Dean of Columbia College 
Vice President for Undergraduate Education
Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor 
Professor of Chemistry 
BA, Pittsburgh; MS, Chicago; PhD, Berkeley

University Professors

Richard Axel, University Professor
BA, Columbia, 1967; MD, Johns Hopkins, 1970

Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1967

Martin Chalfie, University Professor
BA, Harvard, 1969; PhD, Harvard, 1976

Wafaa El-Sadr, University Professor
MD, Cairo University, 1974; MPH, Columbia, 1991; MPA, Harvard, 1996

R. Kent Greenawalt, University Professor
BPhil, Oxford, 1960; LLB, Columbia, 1963

Wayne A. Hendrickson, University Professor
PhD, Johns Hopkins, 1968

Eric R. Kandel, University Professor
BA, Harvard, 1952; MD, New York University, 1956

Rosalind Krauss, University Professor
PhD, Harvard, 1969

Robert Mundell, University Professor
BA, British Columbia, 1953; PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1956

Simon Schama, University Professor
MA, Cambridge, 1969

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor
BA, Presidency College (Calcutta), 1959; PhD, Cornell, 1967

Joseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor
BA, Amherst, 1964; PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1967

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, University Professor
BS, University of Belgrade, 1972; SM, University of Belgrade, 1975; PhD, University of Belgrade, 1980

University Professors Emeritus/Emerita

Caroline Walker Bynum, University Professor Emerita
PhD, Harvard, 1969

Donald Keene, University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature
BA, Columbia, 1942; MA, 1947; MA, Cambridge, 1949; PhD, Columbia, 1951; DLitt, Cambridge, 1978

Tsung-Dao Lee, University Professor Emeritus
PhD, Chicago, 1950; DS, Princeton, 1958; LLD, Chinese University (Hong Kong), 1969; DS, City College (New York), 1978; Diploma, Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa), 1982; DS, Bard, 1984