Distinguished Professors

Since 1985, the university has acknowledged outstanding faculty achievement through the conferral of the honorific title “Distinguished Professor.” The professorship is limited to "a very small number of senior professors who have made exceptional contributions to their disciplines, to their students, and to the university as teachers/scholars exemplifying the finest of Tufts' traditions."

Criteria

Appointment as Distinguished Professor is a special honor conferred only to full-time professorial, tenured, or continuous term faculty members in recognition of a sustained period of exemplary accomplishment at Tufts through a combination of teaching and mentoring, research, or creative achievements, and professional, community, and institutional service. In addition, the ideal candidate should have demonstrated societal impact and hold a significant degree of national and international recognition in their field.

Guidelines

• To ensure that the title remains a high distinction, the total number of active faculty holding the professorship should at no time exceed five percent of the eligible faculty population (approximately 12), and no more than three professorships should lie in one school at the same time.
• The holders of the professorship should represent the diversity of our faculty.
• The professorship is open to senior faculty members serving in a full-time capacity who in most cases already hold a named professorship.
• The professorship is not endowed and does not come with funding.
• Appointments are subject to review by the dean and provost every five years or at the point of the holder’s contract or continuous term renewal, whichever comes first.

Nomination Process

The Office of the Provost will solicit nominations from the deans of each school in early Spring of every other calendar year. Nominations can be submitted via email to faculty@tufts.edu. For questions, please reach out to Melissa Stevenson, Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs, at melissa.stevenson@tufts.edu.

Deans are encouraged to solicit nominations from department chairs, division leads, and academic deans. Deans have the discretion of which nominations to ultimately put forward to the provost and should submit a dean’s letter of endorsement along with the candidate’s C.V. by the published deadline.

The dean’s letter of endorsement must detail the achievements that warrant the appointment and cite specific examples of sustained excellence in teaching and mentoring; research or creative achievements; professional, community, and institutional service, and societal impact. While the letter should speak to the candidate’s demonstrated and sustained excellence in all categories, the letter should also include examples of how the candidate might be particularly distinguished in at least one of those categories.

The provost will appoint a Distinguished Professor Nomination Review Committee to assist in the review and selection of the strongest candidates for the title of Distinguished Professor. The committee may be comprised of active Distinguished or University Professors, emeriti faculty, and other members as appointed by the provost.

The charge of the committee is to prepare a slate of recommended candidates to present to the provost for consideration, and to ensure in that process that all finalists:

• Have met the criteria of demonstrated and sustained excellence in each of the areas of teaching and mentoring; research or creative achievements; professional, community, and institutional service, and societal impact.
• Hold a significant degree of national or international recognition in their field, and
• Represent the diversity of our faculty.

Review and Selection Process

The Distinguished Professor Nomination Review Committee will meet in April to review and present a slate of recommended candidates to the provost for consideration.

• The provost and president will review the slate of recommended candidates together.
• By May, the provost and president will make their final selection and the provost will communicate those results both to the Review Committee and to the nominating deans.
• Appointments will then be reported by the Office of the Provost to the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees at the May meeting.