Martin Brinkley and Gregory Characklis are named Kenan Distinguished Professors. Chris Clemens is named a Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Convergent Science in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Carolina has named 68 distinguished professors since July 2020, including two Kenan Distinguished Professors and a Chancellor’s Eminent Professor.
Martin Brinkley, dean of the School of Law, Arch T. Allen Distinguished Professor of Law and professor of the practice, and Gregory Characklis, professor in the environmental sciences and engineering department and Institute for the Environment in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, were named William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professors.
Chris Clemens, director of the UNC Institute for Convergent Science, was named Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Convergent Science in the College of Arts & Sciences.
“The Kenan Distinguished Professorship and the Chancellor’s Eminent Professorship are the highest forms of faculty recognition that the University can offer,” Executive Vice Provost Ronald P. Strauss said. “The awards are substantive, providing salary and research funds to the schools that extend to the recipients for the life of the professorships.”
Established as a gift from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, Kenan Distinguished Professorships are to be drawn “from the academic leaders of America.”
Brinkley joined the School of Law as dean in July 2015, coming directly from practice, the first person to do so in the modern history of the law school. Prior to coming to Carolina, he practiced for more than 20 years in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, antitrust and regulated industries, public finance and charitable organizations law. At the law school, he teaches a transition-to-practice course on mergers and acquisitions.
Characklis’ research interests include developing solutions to water resource challenges through systems-based approaches that integrate both engineering and economic principles, with a focus on evaluating and managing environmental financial risk. He is also the director of the Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems, which is focused on translating environmental events into financial outcomes, bridging UNC Gillings and the UNC Institute for the Environment. He joined the faculty at Carolina in 2001.
The Chancellor’s Eminent Professorship was established in 2004 “to attract or retain a world-class teacher and scholar to the College of Arts & Sciences.” Like the Kenan, it provides scholarly, salary and other support. Clemens becomes only the third holder of this prestigious professorship.
Clemens oversees a new multidisciplinary institute that promotes collaborations that enable Carolina’s global scientific and creative communities to address today’s most complex challenges. An astrophysicist, he came to Carolina in 1998 after completing a NASA Hubble postdoctoral fellowship at Iowa State University and a Sherman Fairchild Prize postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech. Before becoming the faculty director for the Institute for Convergent Science, he was senior associate dean for research and innovation in the College.
These professorships are among 68 bestowed since July 2020, including 28 term professorships awarded for a specific period and the following 37 distinguished professorships in the schools, awarded in perpetuity:
Adams School of Dentistry
- Cristiano Susin, OraPharma Distinguished Professor of Periodontal Medicine, effective March 1, 2021
- Edward Swift, Dr. Thomas P. Hinman Distinguished Professor, effective Nov. 1, 2020
College of Arts & Sciences
- Todd BenDor, Distinguished Professor in Sustainable Community Design, effective July 1, 2020
- Mark Crescenzi, Nancy Hanes White Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Maria DeGuzman, Eugene H. Falk Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Mary Floyd-Wilson, Mann Family Distinguished Professor, effective Jan. 1, 2021
- Jinsong Huang, Louis D. Rubin Jr. Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Deborah Jones, Zachary Smith Term Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Mark Katz, John P. Barker Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Jason Metcalfe, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Andrew Nobel, Robert Paul Ziff Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Darin Padua, Joseph Curtis Sloane Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
Eshelman School of Pharmacy
- Kristy Ainslie, Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2021
Gillings School of Global Public Health
- Noel Brewer, Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health, effective April 1, 2021
- Penny Gordon-Larsen, Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor, effective Jan. 1, 2021
- Susan Smith, Dickson Foundation — Harris Teeter Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2021
- Jill Stewart, Philip C. Singer Distinguished Professor, effective Aug. 1, 2020
Hussman School of Journalism and Media
- Heidi Hennink-Kaminski, Hugh Morton Distinguished Professor, effective Sept. 1, 2020
- Seth Noar, James Howard and Hallie McLean Parker Distinguished Professor, effective Sept. 1, 2020
- Terence Oliver, Walter Spearman Distinguished Professor, effective Sept. 1, 2020
School of Education
- Gregory Cizek, Guy B. Phillips Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Jill Hamm, William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in Education, effective July 1, 2021
School of Law
- Anne Klinefelter, Henry P. Brandis Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Leigh Osofsky, William D. Spry III Family Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2020
School of Medicine
- Jan Busby-Whitehead, M. Andrew Greganti Distinguished Professor, effective June 1, 2021
- Mauricio Castillo, Matthew A. Mauro Distinguished Professor, effective Jan. 29, 2021
- Deborah Givens, Dr. Margaret Lee Moore Professor in Physical Therapy, effective Jan. 29, 2021
- Matthew Mauro, James H. Scatliff Distinguished Professor, effective Jan. 29, 2021
- Joseph Muenzer, Bryson Distinguished Professor in Pediatric Genetics, effective Nov. 14, 2022
- Genevieve Neal-Perry, Robert A. Ross Distinguished Professor, effective July 17, 2021
- Matthew Nielsen, John Sloan Rhodes and John Flint Rhodes Distinguished Professor, effective March 26, 2021
- David Weber, Charles Addison and Elizabeth Ann Sanders Distinguished Professor, effective Sept. 25, 2020
School of Social Work
- Gina Chowa, Johnson-Howard-Adair Distinguished Professor, effective Jan. 1, 2021
- Gary Cuddeback, Berg-Beach Distinguished Professor of Community Social Work, effective Jan. 1, 2021
- Trenette Goings, Sandra Reeves Spears and John B. Turner Distinguished Professor, effective Jan. 1, 2021
The following term professorships were awarded:
Adams School of Dentistry
- Antonio Moretti, Straumann Distinguished Term Clinical Scholar, effective Nov. 1, 2021
College of Arts & Sciences
- Jillian Dempsey, Bowman and Gordon Gray Term Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Michael McFee, Doris Betts Term Professor, effective July 1, 2021
- David Nicewicz, Royce Murray Term Professor in Chemistry, effective July 1, 2020
- Patricia Parker, Ruel W. Tyson Jr. Distinguished Term Professor, effective July 1, 2021
- Lisa Pearce, Zachary Smith Term Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Diego Riveros-Iregui, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Graeme Robertson, Harold J. Glass USAF Faculty Mentor Term Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Tanya Shields, Bowman and Gordon Gray Term Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2020
- Michael Tsin, Earl N. Phillips Distinguished Term Professor in International Studies, effective Jan. 1, 2021
- Ruth von Bernuth, Seymour and Carol Levin Distinguished Professor, effective Jan. 1, 2021
Eshelman School of Pharmacy
- James Patterson, John A. and Deborah S. McNeill Jr. Distinguished Term Professor, effective Jan. 1, 2021
Hussman School of Journalism and Media
- Victoria Ekstrand, Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Term Professor for Graduate Education, effective July 1, 2021
- Allison Lazard, E. Reese Felts Jr. Term Professor, effective Sept. 1, 2020
- Trevy McDonald, Julian Scheer Term Associate Professor, effective Sept. 1, 2020
School of Education
- Thurston Domina, Robert W. Eaves Distinguished Term Professor, effective July 1, 2021
- Sherick Hughes, Samuel M. Holton Distinguished Term Professor, effective July 1, 2021
- Keith Sawyer, Morgan Distinguished Professor, effective July 1, 2018
- Rune Simeonsson, Donald and Justeen Tarbet Distinguished Term Professor of Education, effective Jan. 1, 2019
- Lynda Stone, Samuel M. Holton Distinguished Term Professor, effective July 1, 2018
School of Government
- Adam Lovelady, Albert and Gladys Hall Coates Distinguished Term Associate Professor, effective Dec. 1, 2019
School of Law
- Erika Wilson, Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2020
School of Medicine
- Debra Bynum, Mary and Thomas Hudson Distinguished Term Clinical Professor, June 1, 2021
- David Peden, Harry S. Andrews Distinguished Term Professor, effective April 25, 2021
- Joseph Rossi, Neal Hunter Family Clinical Associate Professor, effective Aug. 1, 2021
- Saira Sheikh, Linda Coley Sewell Distinguished Term Clinical Scholar, effective June 1, 2021
School of Nursing
- Shawn Kneipp, Sarah Frances Russell Distinguished Term Professor, effective Jan. 1, 2021
- Mark Toles, Beerstecher-Blackwell Distinguished Term Scholar, effective Aug. 1, 2020
School of Social Work
- David Ansong, Wallace Kuralt Early Career Distinguished Scholar, effective Jan. 1, 2021
The Well