Named Deanships, Directorships, and Professorships

Thank you for your interest in Johns Hopkins University’s named, endowed positions. An endowed position is the highest form of recognition for a professor’s research, teaching, and service. At Johns Hopkins, our more than 800 endowed professorships and other academic positions — deanships, directorships, and curatorships — support the work of outstanding faculty, fuel discovery, and train the next generation of leaders.

The first endowed professorships were established nearly 500 years ago with the creation of the Lady Margaret chairs in divinity at Oxford and Cambridge. These chairs were sponsored by Margaret, Countess of Richmond and mother of Henry VII. In 1546, Henry VIII established the Regius professorships at both universities in five subjects: divinity, civil law, Hebrew, Greek, and physics— what we now know as medicine and basic sciences. Later, private individuals joined in providing chairs, such as the Lucasian chair in mathematics, which Isaac Newton held beginning in 1669. The honor associated with appointment to an endowed position has remained unchanged since then.

Thank you to the many visionary donors who have endowed positions from across Johns Hopkins, and by doing so, contributed greatly to securing the university’s academic distinction in perpetuity. Donor-funded positions significantly advance our faculty’s work as teachers, scholars, researchers, and clinicians.