On March 24, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver honored scholars from across Vanderbilt at an endowed chair investiture ceremony. While the ceremony featured a traditional processional and placement of a medal over each recipient’s head, the tradition of endowing chairs goes back even further.
“The practice of endowing chairs is one of the oldest in academia,” Diermeier told those in attendance. “It dates back to ancient Rome, when emperor Marcus Aurelius established four chairs in philosophy around the year 176 A.D. Among American universities, the tradition spans three centuries.”
In his remarks, Diermeier acknowledged the donors, several of whom were in attendance, who made the endowed positions possible.
“Your reasons for giving are varied and often personal,” he said of the philanthropic support. “But they all reflect a dedication to our future as we build the next chapter in Vanderbilt’s proud history. On behalf of our entire community, I am deeply grateful for your support.”
The distinguished faculty members representing a wide range of fields were presented with medallions that symbolize attaining their positions and will become part of their official academic regalia. The cohort spans various research areas, from computer-supported learning to cardiovascular nursing to criminal law to structural biology and nucleotides. Chair holders contribute their expertise to real-world challenges, including developing practical sensing devices for a broad class of medical conditions, solutions to societal problems that require changes across complex systems, and sustainable and resilient civil infrastructure facing natural and man-made hazards.
Raver spoke about the impact of endowed chairs: training their peers, mentoring each new generation of students to realize their own potential and devoting their lives to sharing their knowledge.
“It is you, our remarkable faculty, who daily confront our greatest challenges with rigor and actually a sense of joy, a sense of passion, a sense of loving to do things that are really difficult,” Raver said. “Not only have you devoted your lives to the pursuit of new ideas and forms of expression, you have elected to do so in a community where the greatest rewards are not your personal gain, not fame, but in fact, the act of passing it on.”
She celebrated that being honored was just one stop on each honoree’s journey and celebrated that they will continue to do outstanding work.
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Duane Watson served as emcee for the ceremony and presented the newly endowed chair holders.
The following faculty members are Vanderbilt’s most recent endowed chair honorees:
- Nicole Allen, Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development #3
- Christina Edwards Bailey, Eskind Chair in Surgical Education
- Jeffrey Bellin, Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Chair in Law
- Jennifer Elizabeth Below, Mary Phillips Edmonds Gray Chair
- Shekhar Bhansali, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair #15
- Alexander Bick, Edward Claiborne Stahlman Chair #3
- James Cassat, Edward Claiborne Stahlman Chair in Pediatric Physiology and Cell Metabolism
- Misook Chung, Valere Potter Menefee Chair in Nursing
- Melissa Collins Duff, Vickie and Thomas Flood Chair in Hearing and Speech Sciences #2
- Martin Egli, Richard N. Armstrong, Ph.D. Chair for Innovation in Biochemistry
- Eric Grogan, John Clinton Foshee Distinguished Chair in Surgery
- Troy Hackett, Fred. H. Bess Chair in Audiology
- David Aaron Jacobson, Stevenson Chair #32
- De-en Jiang, H. Eugene McBrayer Chair in Chemical Engineering
- Hussam Mahmoud, Craig E. Philip Chair in Engineering
- Kevin Murphy, Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Professor of Fine Arts #2
- Peter Philip Reese, Leo and Margaret Milne Record Chair in Surgery
- John Sloop, Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities #3
- Alyssa Wise, Margaret Cowan Chair
