named professorships

Named professorships (also known as endowed professorships or chairs) are in a particular discipline. Use “the” as an article preceding official title.

Examples: Nancy Jones, the Susan E. and William P. Stiritz Professor in Women’s Studies and History in Arts & Sciences, spoke at the event.
School of Medicine usage is different, however: Tim Ley is the Lewis T. and Rosalind B. Apple Professor of Medicine. But: Tim Ley holds the Lewis T. and Rosalind B. Apple Professorship in Medicine.

Capitalize the full, official names of these professorships: Nancy Jones, the Susan E. and William P. Stiritz Professor in Women’s Studies and History in Arts & Sciences, spoke at the event (Women’s Studies and History is part of this professorship’s official title, so those words are capitalized). Lowercase the discipline in which the professorship is held if the discipline is not part of the full, official name of the professorship: Joseph Smith, the Charles Allen Thomas Professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, led the research (of biology is not part of this professorship’s official title, so it is lowercased). If the full name of the named professorship is used with Professorship instead of Professor, uppercase Professorship: “It is a high privilege to be named to the William Eliot Smith Professorship,” Hirst said. However, note that the preferred use is Professor.

On second reference, if the full, official name of a professorship is not used, capitalize only proper nouns and adjectives: James Grant, the Wayman Crow Professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences, was named to the position. BUT: Clark has held the Crow professorship for five years. If a named professorship includes Jr. or Sr., do not set it off with commas, although should retain the comma after Jr. or Sr. if the official name of the professorship includes it.

Named professorships after a person’s name should not be run in headlines (unless the story directly pertains to the named professorship), subheadlines/decks, cutlines, and pull-quote attributions.

For questions and clarifications, see A&D book “Endowed Professorships: A Distinguished Tradition 1853-2006.”

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