Three faculty members have been named Distinguished University Professor, the highest faculty honor at The Ohio State University. Following the recommendation of Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron, the Board of Trustees formally conferred this to three exceptional individuals:
Martha Chamallas
Professor , Moritz College of Law
Umit Ozkan
Department Chair, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
College of Engineering
This permanent, honorific title includes automatic membership in the President’s and Provost’s Advisory Committee. In addition, the Office of Academic Affairs designates a one-time cash award of $30,000 to be used for scholarly work. To date, only 66 faculty members have held the Distinguished University Professor title.
This program has a rigorous selection process that begins each August. The Office of Academic Affairs sends a call for nominations to recommend faculty for this honor. Department chairs, school directors or faculty awards committees forward their nominations to their college deans. Deans develop a college review process, solicit support letters nationally and internationally and forward their final nomination decisions to our office.
Selection committees are chosen from among the members of the President and Provost’s Advisory Committee. This 2020 committee included:
- Ann Hamilton, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Art;
- Tina Henkin, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Microbiology;
- Ruth Colker, Distinguished University Professor, Moritz College of Law, and;
- Steven Ringel, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
