Thomas Habinek has been Professor of Classics at USC since 1992 and recently completed his fifteenth and final year as chair of department. He has published numerous books and articles on topics in Latin literature, Roman cultural history, classical rhetoric, and natural scientific approaches to ancient art and literature. His awards and honors include two fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Associates' Award for Excellence in Teaching, USC's highest teaching honor. He is currently at work on a book on interrelated concepts of personhood and authorship in the Roman world and on a jointly-authored book on the relationship between physics and aesthetics from antiquity through the nineteenth century.