Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, is awarded to a tenured faculty member considered the best in his or her field. It is akin to the rank of

university professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

at other universities. The appointment, made by the President of Yale University and confirmed by the

Yale Corporation The Yale Corporation, officially The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Assembly of corporation The Corporation comprises 19 members: * Three ex officio An ''ex officio'' m ...

, can be granted to any Yale faculty member, and up to forty professors can hold the title at the same time. The position was established through a 1918 bequest from

John William Sterling John William Sterling (May 12, 1844 – July 5, 1918) was a founding partner of Shearman & Sterling LLP and major benefactor to Yale University. Early life and career John William Sterling was born in Stratford, Connecticut, the son of Ca ...

, and the first Sterling Professor was appointed in 1920.

History

The professorships are named for and funded by a $15-million bequest left by

John W. Sterling John William Sterling (May 12, 1844 – July 5, 1918) was a founding partner of Shearman & Sterling LLP and major benefactor to Yale University. Early life and career John William Sterling was born in Stratford, Connecticut, the son of Cath ...

, partner in the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling and an 1864 graduate of

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

. In addition to financing the university’s largest construction projects throughout the 1920s, including the

Sterling Memorial Library Sterling Memorial Library (SML) is the main library building of the Yale University Library system in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Opened in 1931, the library was designed by James Gamble Rogers as the centerpiece of Yale's Gothic Revi ...

and flagship facilities for many of its professional schools, Sterling stipulated the bequest would allow ”to some extent, the foundation of Scholarships, Fellowships or Lectureships, the endowment of new professorships and the establishment of special funds for prizes.” Sterling’s trustees eventually left the university more than $5 million for this purpose—about $225,000 per chair. The first Sterling Professor was chemist John Johnston, who was awarded the rank in 1920, and was joined later that year by school administrator Frank E. Spaulding, biochemist

Lafayette Mendel Lafayette Benedict Mendel (February 5, 1872 – December 9, 1935) was an American biochemist known for his work in nutrition, with longtime collaborator Thomas B. Osborne, including the study of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, lysine and tryptophan. ...

, and astronomer

Ernest William Brown Ernest William Brown FRS (29 November 1866 – 22 July 1938) was an English mathematician and astronomer, who spent the majority of his career working in the United States and became a naturalised American citizen in 1923. His life's work was ...

. By the mid-1920s, the endowment allowed eighteen Sterling Professors to be appointed. In 1958, the

capped the number of simultaneous appointments at 27, but further endowment growth allowed this number to expand to 40 by 2011. In addition to currently appointed faculty, a number of former Sterling Professors retain emeritus appointments at the university and continue to teach. The first woman to be named Sterling Professor was cell biologist Marilyn Farquhar, in 1987. After Farquhar left Yale in 1989, Middle English scholar

Marie Borroff Marie Edith Borroff (September 10, 1923 – July 5, 2019) was an American poet, translator, and the Sterling Professor of English emerita at Yale University. Life Borroff was born in New York City in 1923, the daughter of professional musicians ...

and geneticist

Carolyn Slayman Carolyn Walch Slayman (1937–2016) was an American geneticist. She was on the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine, where she was appointed Sterling Professor in 1991. On March 11, 1937, she was born in Portland, ME and would become the first ...

were the next women appointed, in 1991. Among the youngest appointees were

John Farquhar Fulton John Farquhar Fulton (November 1, 1899 – May 29, 1960) was an American neurophysiologist and historian of science. He received numerous degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University. He taught at Magdalen College School of Medicine at ...

, made Sterling Professor of Physiology in 1929 at age 30, and later-U.S Supreme Court Justice

William O. Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views, and is often ci ...

, appointed in 1932 at the age of 33.

Joan Steitz Joan Elaine Argetsinger Steitz (born January 26, 1941) is Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is known for her discoveries involving RNA, incl ...

and

Thomas Steitz Thomas Arthur Steitz (August 23, 1940 – October 9, 2018) was an American biochemist, a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, best known for his ...

, biochemists appointed in 1999 and 2001 respectively, were the first married couple to have both held the appointment. In 2021, Michael Della Rocca and

Christine Hayes Christine Hayes is an American academic and scholar of Jewish studies, currently serving as the Sterling Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica at Yale University, specializing in Talmudic and Midrashic studies and Classical Jud ...

, professors of philosophy and religious studies, respectively, became the second married couple to be named Sterling Professors.

List of Sterling Professors

Current

Emeritus

Left

Deceased

Notes

References

* * * * * {{Yale Yale University Professorships at Yale University Yale University-related lists Professorships