Distinguished and Endowed Professorships

Distinguished ProfessorSHIPS

A distinguished professorship is an honorary position held by a new or existing tenured faculty member who is a recognized national or international leader in their field and a scholar who has demonstrated a high level of productivity. A Distinguished Professorship title becomes the faculty member’s primary rank.

A Distinguished Professor is expected to enhance the academic and research programs of their department and college. The expectation is that the individual in the Distinguished Professorship position will, because of their accomplishments, assist the development of junior faculty and provide important guidance to the programmatic development of the entire unit.

UNC Charlotte has a substantial number of distinguished professorships. These professorships are generally established by donors and supplemented with state funds from the Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund which was established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1985.

Conferral of a Distinguished Professor title and position requires approval by the Provost, the Chancellor, the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees, and the President of the UNC System. Upon approval of the System President, the Office of Academic Affairs issues the appointment for the Distinguished Professorship.

Belk College of Business

Professorship	Incumbent
Addison H. and Gertrude C. Reese Distinguished Professor in International Business	Franz Kellermanns Department of Management
Belk Distinguished Professor in Business Innovation	Justin Webb Department of Management
Belk Distinguished Professor in Business Administration	David Woehr Department of Management
Belk Distinguished Professor in Business Analytics	Dongsong Zhang Department of Business Information Systems and Operations Management
Childress Klein Distinguished Professor of Real Estate and Urban Economics	Yongqiang Chu Department of Finance
Distinguished Professor in Accounting	Aloke Ghosh Turner School of Accountancy
Distinguished Professor in Risk Management and Insurance	Weidong Tian Department of Finance
James J. Harris Endowed Chair in Risk Management and Insurance	Gene Lai Department of Finance
John Crosland, Sr., Distinguished Professor in Real Estate and Development	Patrick Smith Department of Finance
The Jule R. and Marguerite Surtman Distinguished Professor in Business Ethics	Denis Arnold Department of Management
Torrence Hemby, Sr. Endowed Chair in Financial Services	David C. Mauer Department of Finance
Steven Ott Distinguished Professor in Real Estate	Chandler Lutz Department of Finance

Cato College of Education

Professorship	Incumbent
Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor in Urban Education	Chance W. Lewis Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education
Lake and Edward J. Snyder, Jr., Distinguished Professor in Special Education	Hedda Meadan-Kaplansky Department of Special Education and Child Development
Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Childhood Literacy	Kelly Cartwright Department of Reading and Elementary Education

College of Arts + Architecture

Professorship	Incumbent
Anne Reynolds Belk Distinguished Professor in Music	David L. Russell Department of Music
Russell M. Robinson, II, Distinguished Professor in Shakespeare	Andrew Hartley Department of Theatre

College of Computing and Informatics

Professorship	Incumbent
Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor in Bioinformatics and Genomics	Daniel Janies Departmentof Bioinformatics and Genomics

College of Health and Human Services

Professorship	Incumbent
Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor in Nursing	Patricia Crane School of Nursing
Dean W. Colvard Distinguished Professor	Mark DeHaven Department of Public Health Sciences
Irwin Belk Distinguished Professor in Health Research	Robert Cramer Department of Public Health Sciences
Metrolina Medical Foundation Distinguished Professor of Public Policy on Health	Apryl Alexander Department of Public Health Sciences

College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences

Professorship	Incumbent
Distinguished Professor in Health Care Ethics	Ruth Groenhout Department of Philosophy
Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor in Jewish Studies	Martin Shuster Department of Philosophy
Knight Distinguished Professor of Public Policy	Jean-Claude F. Thill Department of Geography & Earth Sciences
Marshall A. Rauch Distinguished Professor in Political Science	Regina Branton Department of Political Science and Public Administration

College of Science

Professorship	Incumbent
Irwin Belk Distinguished Professor in Cancer Research	Pinku Mukherjee Department of Biological Sciences
Irwin Belk Distinguished Scholar in Biology	Xiaojun Ren Department of Biological Sciences

William States Lee College of Engineering

Professorship	Incumbent
Belk-Woodward Distinguished Professor in Engineering	Steven Schmid Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science
Duke Energy Distinguished Chair of Power Engineering Systems	Michael Mazzola Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Duke Energy Distinguished Professor in Engineering	Sukumar Kamalasadan Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Howard C. and Sara H. Bissell Distinguished Professor in Engineering	Yong Zhang Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Norvin Kennedy Dickerson, Jr. Distinguished Professor	Edward Morse Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science

Endowed Professors

Belk College of Business

Professorship	Incumbent
Rush S. Dickson Professor of Finance	Tao-Hsien (Dolly) King Department of Finance

College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences

Professorship	Incumbent
Blumenthal Professor of Judaic Studies	John C. Reeves Department of Religious Studies
Charles H. Stone Professor of American History	John David Smith Department of History
Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies	Tanure Ojaide Department of Africana Studies
Robert E. Bailey Professor of History	David R. Goldfield Department of History

College of Science

Professorship	Incumbent
Charles H. Stone Professor of Chemistry	Craig Ogle Department of Chemistry