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

Minouche Shafik
President of the University 
Doctor of Philosophy
MS, London School of Economics and Political Science; PhD,
St Antony's College, Oxford University

Dennis A. Mitchell
Interim Provost
President for University Life; Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement; Professor of Dental Medicine (Community Health and Periodontics) at the Columbia University Medical Center
MPH, Columbia; Doctor of Dental Surgery, Howard University

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

Josef Sorett 
Dean of Columbia College 
Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor and Vice President for Undergraduate Education; and Professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies
M.Div., Boston; PhD, Harvard

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