Meeting our faculty: Prof. Keller

Kenneth Keller is SAIS Bologna's director and also teaches "Science, Technology and International Affairs". Prof. Keller is proof that many roads can lead to SAIS. Who would have thought a chemical engineer could blaze a trail in international relations?

Your degrees?
AB, liberal arts, Columbia University
BS, chemical engineering, Columbia University
MSE, chemical engineering, Johns Hopkins
PhD, chemical engineering, Johns Hopkins

Where have you taught?
University of Minnesota (Chemical Engineering; Biomedical Engineering; Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs)
Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs)
Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) - I've taught at SAIS Bologna for six years, first on a sabbatical leave from the University of Minnesota (2003-2004) and then during my term as Director (which started in 2006).

Links to a recent article and a speech:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/f27701444u9771r1/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X06000169

Anything special about SAIS Bologna?
What's special about SAIS is SAIS Bologna -- the fact that students, over two years, one in Bologna and one in Washington, see international affairs from two different perspectives, an extraordinary and unique learning experience.

Anything special about Bologna?
What's special about Bologna is its perfect blendings: a medieval city with a vibrant modern life; a small city with the culture and lifestyle of a large city; an Italian "non-touristy" city with the art, music, architecture and spectacular food of the best tourist destinations; a city at the cross-roads of northern Italy with its own well-developed sense of community.

Your favorite book?
My favorite book is Anthony Trollope's "Barchester Towers", but I would be hard pressed to turn my back on any other of Trollope's novels -- or George Eliot's -- or a long list of 19th century English writers.