Sterling Professor
Encyclopedia
A Sterling Professorship is the highest academic rank at Yale University
, awarded to a tenured faculty member considered one of the best in his or her field. Traditionally, there are only 27 at any one time, though there are currently 39.
ships are named for and funded by an approximately $10 million endowment left by John William Sterling
of the Yale Class of 1864, name partner in the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling
.
The first Sterling Professor was the chemist John Johnson, who was awarded the rank in 1920.
Other past recipients include Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
(Law), Wilbur Lucius Cross
(English), Jaroslav Pelikan
(history), Nobel Prize winner James Tobin
(Economics), C. Vann Woodward
(History) and Alvan Feinstein
(Medicine and Epidemiology
).
Among the most famous current Sterling Professors are legal scholar Bruce Ackerman
, Nobel Prize
-winning biochemists Sidney Altman
and Thomas Steitz, literary critic Harold Bloom
, economist William Nordhaus
, Judge Guido Calabresi, political scientist James C. Scott
, historian of China Jonathan Spence
, medieval scholars R. Howard Bloch, Giuseppe Mazzotta, and María Rosa Menocal
, historian of Ancient Greece and presidential advisor Donald Kagan
, and Head Start founder Edward Zigler. Current Sterling Professors Emeriti include political scientists Robert A. Dahl
and Charles E. Lindblom
, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Brion Davis
, historian and former Yale President Howard Lamar and architectural historian Vincent Scully
.
Yale recently awarded Sterling Professorships to María Rosa Menocal
, John C. Tully, Thomas D. Pollard
, Dieter Söll, Akhil Amar, David Bromwich
, David Louis Quint, Mary Miller
, Joseph Roach, and William L. Jorgensen
.
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, awarded to a tenured faculty member considered one of the best in his or her field. Traditionally, there are only 27 at any one time, though there are currently 39.
History
The professorProfessor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
ships are named for and funded by an approximately $10 million endowment left by John William Sterling
John William Sterling
John William Sterling was a corporate attorney and major benefactor to Yale University.-Biography:John William Sterling was born in Stratford, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1864 and was a member of Skull and Bones. He was admitted to the bar three years later. He...
of the Yale Class of 1864, name partner in the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling
Shearman & Sterling
Shearman & Sterling LLP is a law firm headquartered in New York City with 20 offices located in major financial centers around the world founded in 1873. It is well known for both its litigation and transactional capabilities, especially in International Arbitration, Capital Markets, Finance, and...
.
The first Sterling Professor was the chemist John Johnson, who was awarded the rank in 1920.
Other past recipients include Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
William O. Douglas
William Orville Douglas was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court...
(Law), Wilbur Lucius Cross
Wilbur Lucius Cross
Wilbur Lucius Cross, Ph. D. was an American educator and political figure who was the 71st Governor of Connecticut for eight years.-Biography:Born in 1862 in Mansfield, Connecticut, Cross graduated from Yale University Wilbur Lucius Cross, Ph. D. (April 10, 1862 – October 5, 1948) was an American...
(English), Jaroslav Pelikan
Jaroslav Pelikan
Jaroslav Jan Pelikan was a scholar in the history of Christianity, Christian theology and medieval intellectual history.-Early years:...
(history), Nobel Prize winner James Tobin
James Tobin
James Tobin was an American economist who, in his lifetime, served on the Council of Economic Advisors and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Harvard and Yale Universities. He developed the ideas of Keynesian economics, and advocated government intervention to...
(Economics), C. Vann Woodward
C. Vann Woodward
Comer Vann Woodward was a preeminent American historian focusing primarily on the American South and race relations. He was considered, along with Richard Hofstadter and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to be one of the most influential historians of the postwar era, 1940s-1970s, both by scholars and by...
(History) and Alvan Feinstein
Alvan Feinstein
Alvan R. Feinstein was a clinician, a researcher and an epidemiologist who made significant impact on clinical investigation, especially on the field of clinical epidemiology that he helped define...
(Medicine and Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
).
Among the most famous current Sterling Professors are legal scholar Bruce Ackerman
Bruce Ackerman
Bruce Arnold Ackerman is an American constitutional law scholar. He is a Sterling Professor at Yale Law School and one of the most frequently cited legal academics in the United States....
, Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
-winning biochemists Sidney Altman
Sidney Altman
Sidney Altman is a Canadian American molecular biologist, who is currently the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale University. In 1989 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas R...
and Thomas Steitz, literary critic Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
, economist William Nordhaus
William Nordhaus
William Dawbney "Bill" Nordhaus is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. Nordhaus lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife Barbara.-Career:...
, Judge Guido Calabresi, political scientist James C. Scott
James C. Scott
James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science, formerly Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the director of the Program in Agrarian Studies. By training, he is a southeast Asianist.- Research topics :James Scott's work focuses...
, historian of China Jonathan Spence
Jonathan Spence
Jonathan D. Spence is a British-born historian and public intellectual specializing in Chinese history. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1993 to 2008. His most famous book is The Search for Modern China, which has become one of the standard texts on the last several...
, medieval scholars R. Howard Bloch, Giuseppe Mazzotta, and María Rosa Menocal
María Rosa Menocal
María Rosa Menocal is a Cuban-born scholar of medieval culture and history. Menocal earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania...
, historian of Ancient Greece and presidential advisor Donald Kagan
Donald Kagan
Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece, notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War. 1987-1988 Acting Director of Athletics, Yale University. He was Dean of Yale College from 1989–1992. He formerly taught in the Department of...
, and Head Start founder Edward Zigler. Current Sterling Professors Emeriti include political scientists Robert A. Dahl
Robert A. Dahl
Robert Alan Dahl , is the Sterling Professor emeritus of political science at Yale University, where he earned his Ph.D. in political science in 1940. He is past president of the American Political Science Association...
and Charles E. Lindblom
Charles E. Lindblom
Charles Edward Lindblom is a Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Economics at Yale University. He is a former president of the American Political Science Association and the Association for Comparative Economic Studies and also a former director of Yale's Institution for Social...
, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Brion Davis
David Brion Davis
David Brion Davis is an American historian and authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He is the Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and founder and Director Emeritus of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. He is a...
, historian and former Yale President Howard Lamar and architectural historian Vincent Scully
Vincent Scully
Vincent Joseph Scully, Jr. is Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, and the author of several books on the subject...
.
Yale recently awarded Sterling Professorships to María Rosa Menocal
María Rosa Menocal
María Rosa Menocal is a Cuban-born scholar of medieval culture and history. Menocal earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania...
, John C. Tully, Thomas D. Pollard
Thomas D. Pollard
Thomas Dean Pollard is a prominent educator, cell biologist and biophysicist whose research focuses on understanding cell motility through the study of actin filaments and myosin motors...
, Dieter Söll, Akhil Amar, David Bromwich
David Bromwich
-Career:Having graduated from Yale with a B.A. in 1973 and a Ph.D. four years later, he became an instructor at Princeton University, where he was promoted to Mellon Professor of English before returning to Yale in 1988. From 1995 he served as the Housum Professor of English at Yale...
, David Louis Quint, Mary Miller
Mary Miller
Mary Ellen Miller is an American art historian and Dean of Yale College. In 1998, she was appointed as the Vincent Scully, Jr. Professor of the History of Art. In 2008, she was appointed as Sterling Professor at Yale...
, Joseph Roach, and William L. Jorgensen
William L. Jorgensen
William L. Jorgensen is a Sterling Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. He is considered a pioneer in the field of computational chemistry...
.
Current Sterling Professors
37 Sterling Professors are actively teaching at Yale. Some emeritus Sterling Professors continue teaching after they retire.- Bruce AckermanBruce AckermanBruce Arnold Ackerman is an American constitutional law scholar. He is a Sterling Professor at Yale Law School and one of the most frequently cited legal academics in the United States....
, Law and Political Science - Sidney AltmanSidney AltmanSidney Altman is a Canadian American molecular biologist, who is currently the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale University. In 1989 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas R...
, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology and Chemistry - Akhil Amar, Law and Political Science
- R. Howard Bloch, French
- Harold BloomHarold BloomHarold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
, Humanities and English - David BromwichDavid Bromwich-Career:Having graduated from Yale with a B.A. in 1973 and a Ph.D. four years later, he became an instructor at Princeton University, where he was promoted to Mellon Professor of English before returning to Yale in 1988. From 1995 he served as the Housum Professor of English at Yale...
, English - Peter BrooksPeter BrooksPeter Brooks is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Yale University and Andrew W. Mellon Scholar in the department of Comparative Literature and the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He is formerly Professor in the Department of English and School of Law at the...
, Comparative Literature and French - Guido Calabresi, Law (emeritus)
- Mirjan Damaska, Law (emeritus)
- Owen Fiss, Law
- Richard Flavell, Immunobiology
- Gerhard Giebisch, Physiology (emeritus)
- Roberto Gonzalez EchevarriaRoberto González EchevarríaRoberto González Echevarría is a Cuban-born critic of Latin American literature and culture. He is currently the Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature at Yale University....
, Hispanic and Comparative Literature - Geoffrey HartmanGeoffrey HartmanGeoffrey H. Hartman is a German-born American literary theorist, sometimes identified with the Yale School of deconstruction, but also has written on a wide range of subjects, and cannot be categorized by a single school or method.-Biography:...
, English - John HollanderJohn HollanderJohn Hollander is a Jewish-American poet and literary critic. As of 2007, he is Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University...
, English (emeritus) - William L. JorgensenWilliam L. JorgensenWilliam L. Jorgensen is a Sterling Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. He is considered a pioneer in the field of computational chemistry...
, Chemistry - Donald KaganDonald KaganDonald Kagan is an American historian at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece, notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War. 1987-1988 Acting Director of Athletics, Yale University. He was Dean of Yale College from 1989–1992. He formerly taught in the Department of...
, Classics and History - Anthony Kronman, Law
- John Langbein, Law and Legal History
- Richard Lifton, Genetics
- Juan LinzJuan LinzJuan José Linz is a Spanish sociologist and political scientist. He is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale University and an honorary member of the Scientific Council at the Juan March Institute...
, Political and Social Science (emeritus) - Jerry Mashaw, Law
- David MayhewDavid MayhewDavid R. Mayhew is a political scientist and Sterling Professor in the Political Science Department at Yale University. He is the author of several influential books on American politics....
, Political Science - Giuseppe Mazzotta, Italian Language and Literature
- María Rosa MenocalMaría Rosa MenocalMaría Rosa Menocal is a Cuban-born scholar of medieval culture and history. Menocal earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania...
, Humanities - Mary MillerMary MillerMary Ellen Miller is an American art historian and Dean of Yale College. In 1998, she was appointed as the Vincent Scully, Jr. Professor of the History of Art. In 2008, she was appointed as Sterling Professor at Yale...
, History of Art - Peter MoorePeter Moore (chemist)Peter B. Moore is Sterling Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. He has dedicated his entire career to understanding the structure, function, and mechanism of the ribosome....
, Chemistry and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (emeritus) - William NordhausWilliam NordhausWilliam Dawbney "Bill" Nordhaus is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. Nordhaus lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife Barbara.-Career:...
, Economics - Annabel Patterson, English (emeritus)
- Peter C. B. PhillipsPeter C. B. PhillipsPeter Charles Bonest Phillips is a leading econometrician. He received his PhD from London School of Economics under the supervision of John Denis Sargan in 1974. Since 1979 he has been Professor of Economics and Statistics at Yale University...
, Economics - Thomas D. PollardThomas D. PollardThomas Dean Pollard is a prominent educator, cell biologist and biophysicist whose research focuses on understanding cell motility through the study of actin filaments and myosin motors...
, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology - David Louis Quint, Comparative Literature
- Joseph Roach, Theater
- Frank Ruddle, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology (emeritus)
- Herbert ScarfHerbert ScarfHerbert Eli "Herb" Scarf is an American mathematical economist and Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences...
, Economics - Alan SchwartzAlan SchwartzAlan D. Schwartz is an executive chairman of Guggenheim Partners, LLC, an investment banking firm based in Chicago and New York. He was the last CEO Bear Stearns before its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase & Co., having succeeded James E. Cayne who remained chairman.-History at Bear Stearns:Alan...
, Law - James C. ScottJames C. ScottJames C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science, formerly Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the director of the Program in Agrarian Studies. By training, he is a southeast Asianist.- Research topics :James Scott's work focuses...
, Political Science - Vincent ScullyVincent ScullyVincent Joseph Scully, Jr. is Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, and the author of several books on the subject...
, History of Art (emeritus) - Ian ShapiroIan ShapiroIan Shapiro, Ph.D., Yale University, 1983, J.D., Yale Law School, 1987, is Sterling professor of political science and Henry R. Luce director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, now called the MacMillan Center. His research interests center on sociological aspects of economics...
, Political Science - Carolyn Slayman, Genetics
- Dieter Söll, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
- Jonathan SpenceJonathan SpenceJonathan D. Spence is a British-born historian and public intellectual specializing in Chinese history. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1993 to 2008. His most famous book is The Search for Modern China, which has become one of the standard texts on the last several...
, History - Joan A. SteitzJoan A. SteitzJoan Argetsinger Steitz is a molecular biologist at Yale University, famed for her discoveries involving RNA, including ground-breaking insights such as that ribosomes interact with mRNA by complementary base pairing and that introns are spliced by snRNPs, small nuclear ribonucleoproteins which...
, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry - Thomas Steitz, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
- John C. Tully, Chemistry
- Karl Turekian, Geology and Geophysics
- Sherman Weissman, Genetics and Medicine
- Edward Zigler, Child Study Center (emeritus)