Susan Hadden

[rwl at uts.cc.utexas.edu]

        On January 15, 1995, Susan G. Hadden, Professor in the LBJ School
of Public Affairs and the Center for Asian Studies at the University of
Texas, was killed by bandits while she and her husband were on their way to
visit the temple complex at Angkor Wat.  The trip was a 50th birthday
present from her husband, James, who was seriously wounded in the attack.
The gift was the fulfillment of her long-standing wish to visit the site.
        Susan was a native Texan.  Educated at Radcliffe where, in the
course of earning a B.A. cum laude, she studied Sanskrit with Daniel
Ingalls.  It is typical of Susan's self-deprecating wit that she once told
me that her fellow student was the late Bimal K. Matilal, and thus Ingalls
had, simultaneously, the best and worst students of his entire career in
the same room.  On her way to studying India she was interrupted by the
intrusion of public policy.  Finding the interaction of politics and policy
fascinating, she went on to the University of Chicago where she took the
M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science.
        She was an expert on telecommunications policy, on environmental
policy, citizen participation in policy formulation, and policies relating
to human health risks.  She was regularly called upon by state and local
government to formulate policies in these areas.  She was repeatedly called
to Washington, D.C. to testify before the House and Senate on public policy
matters, and advised Vice President Gore on policies relating to public
access to the Internet.  For her contributions to the study of public
response to science related social controversies she was elected a Fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February
1993.
        Throughout her work on public policy she never forgot her early
interest in India.  She wrote on environmental policy in India, traveled
there regularly, and was an active and integral member of the community of
scholars at The University of Texas who study India.  Her interests were
not confined to contemporary matters.  We were as likely to see Susan at a
presentation by an art historian as we were at a presentation by a
political scientist.  She had been at UT since 1979, and by the force of
her intellect and the easy humor that she found in much of academic life
she made a deep impression on all of us who worked with her.  It is ironic
that this expert on telecommunications policy, this expert on many of the
urgent issues of contemporary society, met her end pursuing the dream of a
visit to an ancient temple site.  Such a quest is typical of this cultured,
cosmopolitan lady.  I will particularly miss her as a kindred spirit who
never took the vicissitudes (and pomposities) of academia too seriously.
Her infectious laughter, her dedication to her work, her insistence on high
standards, and her good friendship will always be missed.
        She is survived by her husband Jim, her son James a junior at MIT,
her daughter Lucy Brockman, a graduate student at the University of
California at San Diego, and her parents, Nathan and Ruth Ginsburg of
Austin.