Faculty News
Endowed Professorships
The Pratt School of Engineering is honored to recognize the generous support of alumni and friends through endowed professorships.
- Anderson-Rupp Teaching Professorship - Barry Myers
- Addy Family Professorship - David Brady
- Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Electrical Engineering - vacant
- W. H. Gardner, Jr. Associate Professorship in Civil and Environmental Engineering - Henri P. Gavin
- W. H. Gardner, Jr., Department Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Lawrie Virgin
- Hogg Family Directorship of Engineering Management/Hogg Family Entrepreneurial Professorship - Jeff Glass
- Fitzgerald S. Hudson Professorship - Kishor Trivedi
- J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering - Adrian Bejan
- J.A. Jones Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Nan Marie Jokerst
- James B. Duke Professor of Biomedical Engineering - Kam Leong
- James L. Meriam Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Mark Wiesner
- Thomas Lord Professorships - Olaf von Ramm, Robert Clark
- Nortel Networks Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Jungsang Kim
- Randolph K. Repass and Sally-Christina Rodgers University Professorship - vacant
- R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of Biomedical Engineering - Tuan Vo-Dinh
- Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professorship
- Nello L. Teer, Jr. Professorship - David Katz
- James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Professorship - Wanda Krassowska
- James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Professorship - Gregg Trahey
- Jeffrey N. Vinik Professorship - Steven Cummer
- William H. Younger Professorship - Larry Carin
- Mary Milas Yoh and Harold L. Yoh, Jr. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering - Lori Setton
Endowed Scholars
- Augustine Family Scholar - vacant
- Alfred M. Hunt Faculty Scholars - vacant
- Phillip Jackson Baugh Scholar - Martin Brooke
- John-Kelly C. Warren Scholars - vacant
Full Professorship
- Pfizer, Inc./Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. University Professor Emeritus - Robert Plonsey
Eponymous Professorships
- Julian Francis Abele Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science - Named after Julian Francis Abele, the first African-American to graduate from the Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts and Architecture in 1904. Upon graduation, he joined the firm of Horace Trumbauer, who sent Abele to Paris to study at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, from which he graduated in 1906. By 1909, Abele was the chief designer in the firm of Horace Trumbauer & Associates, the architectural firm that designed many of the buildings on Duke University's West Campus, including the chapel and the Allen Administration Building. Along with many houses for the elite of Northern society, the Trumbauer firm designed the residences of James B. Duke in New York City, and Somerville, NJ. Presumably that is why the firm received the commission to design the new university bearing the Duke name. Additionally, Abele is credited with designing the Widener Library at Harvard University, and Philadelphia's Free Library and Museum of Art. He is considered the first major African-American architect in the United States. Pratt professor: Kenneth C. Hall
- William Holland Hall Professor of Mechanical Engineering - Named after William Holland Hall, Dean of the College of Engineering at Duke from 1939-1953. Hall was an early champion of engineering education at Trinity College (Trinity was later renamed as Duke University). He joined the faculty of the Department of Engineering in 1914 and became the first dean of the College of Engineering in 1939. At one point during his early tenure at Duke, he comprised the entire staff of the engineering department. For many years, Hall battled against the perception among the administration that engineering education was not worthy of the same level of support as that given to law, business, medicine, religion and forestry. Despite his protests to the contrary, the University administration did not give credence to the technical advances and progression of the profession of engineering during the years after World War I, resulting in engineering education at Duke falling well below the national standard. With perseverence and dedication, Hall consistently championed the merits of engineering education, resulting in the formation of the Division of Engineering in 1937 and the College of Engineering in 1939. In the wake of world War II, Dean Hall led the College through a period of major growth and continued to do so until his retirement in 1954. Pratt professor: Earl H. Dowell
- Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering - Named after Aleksandar S. Vesic, Dean of the College of Engineering from 1974 to 1982. Vesic was a professor of civil engineering at Duke prior to becoming dean. In honor of his efforts to expand the engineering school, Duke named the Vesic Library for Engineering, Mathematics and Physics after Aleksandar, who died in 1982. Pratt professor: Henry Petroski