News Release

UNC faculty members named
to distinguished professorships

CHAPEL HILL – In the past year, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 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 university’s Carolina First Campaign is to create 200 new 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.

With an overall goal of $2 billion, Carolina First is a comprehensive, multi-year private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.

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, university 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 the university’s high academic standing. The $3 million Kenan eminent professorships, part of a $27 million commitment to the Carolina First Campaign 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.

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

• Hiroshi Motomura, professor, as Kenan professor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Dr. Richard Simpson, professor, as Walter E. Hussman term professor through June 30, 2006.
• Dr. Ruth Walden, professor, as James Howard and Hallie McLean Parker distinguished professor.
• Jan Yopp, professor, as Walter Spearman distinguished professor.

• 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.

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

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

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News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu