For professorial couples, Princeton provides an attractive environment

In the Amboseli National Park in East Africa, five miles from the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, ecology and evolutionary biology professors Jeanne and Stuart Altmann have been studying a group of baboons for more than three decades.

From their tents pitched at the edge of the park, they discuss the animals' environment, behavior, infant development, feeding and foraging patterns and population dynamics.

Back at the University, the duo hovers over volumes of related research and map files in their joint library in Jeanne Altmann's office in Guyot Hall.

While the Altmanns may seem like a typical pair of scientific researchers, they are anything but.

The two not only share similar academic interests and positions at the University, but they also share a marriage.

"It's kind of a tricky relationship," said Stuart Altmann, who researched and taught alongside his wife Jeanne at the University of Chicago for 28 years before coming to Princeton in 1998.

"When we're doing field work, we're isolated in distant places with just the two of us or with our children or a small group of Kenyan assistants," he explained.

Though acknowledging the potential for such close contact to either "make or break a marriage," Altmann is quick to point out the advantages of working in the same field and institution as his wife.

"We see each other frequently and 'talk shop' endlessly," he said. "We both know about and understand and are working on the same project."

Across the University, academic couples like the Altmanns are combining aspects of their professional and personal lives in disciplines as varied as chemistry, engineering, psychology, English, religion, history and music.

Some teach in the same department, sharing office space within adjoining buildings and even co-teaching courses.

Others rarely see each other, aside from chance meetings while waiting in line at the Frist Campus Center or working out at the Stephens Fitness Center.

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Yet all agree that there's something to be said for being an academic couple at Princeton.

Most cite the freedom from tiring commutes and long-distance relationships as a major plus in teaching at the same University.

Professor Deborah Nord grappled with traveling between Cambridge and Princeton for seven years, while she taught at Harvard and her husband, history professor Philip Nord taught at the University.

"We didn't intend to live our lives commuting," said Nord, who joined the Princeton faculty in 1989, with a joint position in Women's Studies and the Department of English.

"We were on the lookout for jobs together," she added.

Aside from minor mishaps, such as occasional mixups in mail delivery, Nord said the couple enjoys working in close proximity and having the chance to share their academic interests. Both study aspects of the nineteenth century – she with respect to England, he with respect to France.

Professors Lee Mitchell and Carolyn Abbate also said they enjoy the convenience of working close to home.

"Both of us are literally bike rides away from our office," Mitchell said.

While many academic pairs simultaneously accepted positions at Princeton, Mitchell and Abbate had already established their University careers before meeting in 1988 through a mutual friend in the history department.

"It's very rare for both people [in academia] to find jobs at the same place," added Abbate, who teaches in the music department and enjoys the flexibility of returning home if a problem arises with her two young children.

For most professors, the knowledge that their spouse would also have a position at the University was a major factor in their own decision to accept a Princeton professorship.

"We wouldn't be here at Princeton if we weren't both hired," said professor Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, who works in the sociology department and the office of population research and is married to sociology professor Alejandro Portes. The two have been at Princeton since 1997.

For the most part, academic couples shy away from emphasizing their marriages at work. Department chairs do the same.

"We treat them as their own entities.," said ecology and evolutionary biology department chair Daniel Rubenstein. "They're hired because of their excellence in their own right."

Yet many professors are aware of the controversial practice of spousal hiring, where a University may create a position for a potential professor's spouse partly in an attempt to attract that professor.

"One disadvantage might be the perception that your presence in the University might be related to the other's presence," said Fernandez-Kelly.

Yet she said that, in her experience, this issue is "not a big problem." Once each professor has demonstrated his capabilities through excellence in teaching or research, "all doubts are dispelled," she said.

Likewise, most academic couples at Princeton emphasize the benefits of their dual marriages to each other and to the University. Yet they are certainly aware of the age-old adage that warns against mixing business with pleasure.

For many, because their interests and daily experiences are so similar, there is only a blurry line separating their lives inside lecture halls and living rooms.

"One disadvantage is that our work pops up a lot in our private life," said ecology and evolutionary biology professor Michaela Hau, whose husband, professor Martin Wikelski, is in the same department. "We have to consciously avoid talking about our work."

Other couples, consumed with child rearing and household duties, find that their private lives naturally seem to take over once they turn the key in the lock at home.

"So much of our attention is focused on being parents," Griffith said of her four-year-old and one-year-old children. "But we do talk a lot about our work."

When such conversations about University issues spill over from the office to the dinner table, many couples said they value this chance to share an intricate aspect of their lives with their spouse.

"It's one of the joys of being married to another academic," Griffith said.

When the two cross paths at the University, they view this time together as a welcome respite from the daily grind.

"We see each other at Frist for lunch once a week or so, and that's nice, since breakfast and dinner at home are not exactly adult-centered events, but kid fests with multiple little dramas over who or isn't going to eat what," Schmidt said in an e-mail.

Those who teach in the same department said they additionally value the opportunity to share ideas for lecture topics and to discuss problems with their spouses, especially in the early years of teaching.

"We benefit from each other," said Hau.

"Simply sitting in someone else's lecture and looking at their teaching styles, and then trying to integrate their [ideas] into your own" helps Hau refine her own teaching skills, she said.

Last Spring, Hau and Wikelski joined forces to team teach EEB 314: Comparative Physiology. Carefully coordinating their individual strengths and field work schedules, the couple divided the course into two sections. Hau taught the first half, while Wikelski researched in the Galapagos and then taught the remaining weeks of the course.

The couple also teach an intensive twelve-week course in Panama for ecology and evolutionary biology majors.

Students who have taken the couple's class said they enjoyed the continuity that the professors' shared interests and background brought to the class.

"When [Wikelski] went to Panama, [Hau] would pick up right where he left off," said Nuriya Robinson, who took the class last spring and has Wikelski as a thesis advisor. "I didn't even know they were married while I was taking the class."