Faculty Members Named to Distinguished Professorships

Posted on Feb. 9, 2006

In the past year, the University has named 54 faculty members to endowed professorships – designations that are created through gifts to the University and that recognize excellence in teaching and research.

A key goal of the Carolina First fundraising campaign is to create 200 endowed professorships. Including the most recent designations, the University has created 161 thus far in the campaign, which began July 1, 1999, and will end Dec. 31, 2007.

Gifts for endowed professorships are invested, and a portion of the investment income supplements the professor’s salary. Endowed funds provide a permanent source of income because the principal is not spent, officials said.

Overall, the University has almost 500 professorships in place or being funded. Gifts to establish professorships may be supplemented with matching funds from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund, established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1985.

The oldest continuously endowed chairs at Carolina are the Mary Ann Smith professorships in chemistry, established in 1891. Smith made her will in 1861, leaving half of her estate to Carolina for endowment of “such a chair as shall teach both the science of chemistry and its experimental application to the useful arts.”

The largest number of endowed professorships available to the University come from the four groups of Kenan professorships, which have been credited with attracting or retaining a large number of outstanding faculty members and adding substantially to UNC’s high academic standing. The $3 million Kenan eminent professorships, part of a $27 million commitment to Carolina First from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, are among the largest endowed professorships in the University’s history.

Following are the distinguished professorship designees approved by the Board of Trustees from January 2005 through January 2006, listed by academic affiliation. Kenan professorships are listed separately.

Kenan professorships
College of Arts and Sciences

• Carl W. Ernst, professor, religious studies, as William R. Kenan Jr. professor.
• Barbara Fredrickson, professor, psychology, as Kenan distinguished teaching professor.
• Minrose Gwin, professor, English, as Kenan eminent professor.
• Donald T. Lysle, professor, psychology, as Kenan professor.
• Mary D. Sheriff, professor, art, as William R. Kenan Jr. professor.
• Jeff Spinner-Haley, professor, political science, as Kenan eminent professor of political ethics.
• Holden Thorp, professor, chemistry, as Kenan professor.

School of Law

Hiroshi Motomura, professor, as Kenan professor.

School of Medicine

• Dr. Kenneth Jacobson, professor, cell and developmental biology, as Kenan professor.
• Dr. Etta D. Pisano, professor, radiology, as Kenan professor.
• Dr. Yue Xiong, professor, biochemistry and biophysics, as William R. Kenan Jr. professor.

School of Nursing

• Diane Holditch-Davis, professor, as Kenan professor.

School of Public Health

• James A. Swenberg, professor, environmental sciences and engineering, as Kenan professor.
• Steven Zeisel, professor, nutrition, as Kenan professor.

Other distinguished professorships
College of Arts and Sciences

• Christopher M. Armitage, professor, English, as Bowman and Gordon Gray distinguished term professor through June 30, 2010.
• John Chasteen, professor, history, as Daniel W. Patterson distinguished term professor through June 30, 2010.
• Joseph Glatthaar, professor, history, as Stephenson distinguished professor.
• Karen Gil, professor, psychology, as Gillian T. Cell distinguished term professor through June 30, 2010.
• Karen Hagemann, professor, history, as James Graham Kenan distinguished professor.
• Alan Jones, professor, biology, as George and Alice Welsh distinguished term professor through June 30, 2010.
• Leon Katz, professor, dramatic art, as David G. Frey distinguished professor.
• Thomas J. Meyer, professor, chemistry, as Arey distinguished professor.
• Charles David Reeve, professor, philosophy, as Delta Kappa Epsilon distinguished professor.
• Paul Rhode, professor, economics, as Zachary Taylor Smith term professor through June 30, 2010.
• William M. Rohe, professor, city and regional planning, as Cary C. Boshamer professor.
• Michael K. Salemi, professor, economics, as Bowman and Gordon Gray distinguished term professor through June 30, 2010.
• Francisco Werner, professor, marine sciences, as George and Alice Welsh distinguished term professor through June 30, 2010.

Kenan-Flagler Business School

• Robert M. Bushman, professor, as Forensic Accounting distinguished professor.

School of Dentistry

• Dr. John Stamm, professor, as Alumni distinguished professor.

School of Information and Library Science

• Stephanie Haas, associate professor, as Francis Carroll McColl distinguished associate professor.

School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Richard Simpson, professor, as Walter E. Hussman term professor through June 30, 2006.

• Ruth Walden, professor, as James Howard and Hallie McLean Parker distinguished professor.
• Jan Yopp, professor, as Walter Spearman distinguished professor.

 

School of Law

• John Charles Boger, professor, as Wade Edwards distinguished professor.
• Adrienne Davis, professor, as Reef Ivey distinguished professor.
• Michael Gerhardt, professor, as Samuel Ashe distinguished professor of constitutional law.
• Donald Thomas Hornstein, professor, as Aubrey Brooks distinguished professor.
• Arthur Mark Weisburd, professor, as Martha Brandis distinguished professor.

School of Medicine

• Dr. John Benjamin, professor, pediatrics, as Floyd W. Denny Jr. M.D. distinguished professor of pediatrics.
• Dr. Elizabeth Bullitt, professor, surgery, as Van L. Weatherspoon Jr. distinguished professor of neurosurgery.
• Dr. Stephen Chaney, professor, biochemistry and biophysics, as Medical Alumni distinguished professor through July 31, 2009.
• Dr. Daniel Clark-Pearson, professor, obstetrics and gynecology, as Robert A. Ross professor.
• Dr. AnnaMarie Connolly, assistant professor, obstetrics and gynecology, as Wallace ’69 and Phyllis Baird Medical Alumni distinguished teaching assistant professor through July 31, 2008.
• Dr. Robert Golden, professor, psychiatry, and vice dean, School of Medicine, as Stuart Bondurant distinguished professor.
• Dr. Klaus Hahn, professor, pharmacology, as Ronald Glenn Thurman distinguished professor.
• Dr. Frederick Henderson, professor, pediatrics, as C. Richard Morris M.D. distinguished professor of pediatrics.
• Dr. Melvin Levine, professor, pediatrics, as Thomas E. Castelloe M.D. distinguished professor in developmental behavioral pediatrics.
• Dr. Jacob Lohr, professor, pediatrics, as Jacob A. Lohr distinguished professor of pediatrics.
• Dr. Anthony A. Meyer, professor, surgery, as Colin G. Thomas Jr. distinguished professor of surgery.
• Dr. Ryan Balfour Sartor, professor, digestive diseases and nutrition, medicine, as Margaret W. and Lorimer W. Midgett distinguished professor.
• Dr. William Shockley, professor, otolaryngology/head and neck surgery, as W. Paul Biggers distinguished professor of otolaryngology.
• Dr. George Stouffer, professor, medicine, as Henry A. Foscue distinguished professor of medicine and cardiology.
• Dr. Joel Tepper, professor, radiation oncology, as Hector MacLean distinguished professor of cancer research.

School of Pharmacy

• Leaf Huang, professor, division of drug development and disposition, as Fred N. Eshelman distinguished professor.

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