President David E. Daniel (left) and Dr. Hobson Wildenthal, executive vice president and provost, honored Dr. Andrew Blanchard, Mary McDermott Cook Distinguished Chair for Undergraduate Education and Research, during the 2014 Investiture Ceremony.
UT Dallas will celebrate 11 of its most accomplished faculty members at an Investiture Ceremony and reception on Thursday.
The ceremony also will honor the many donors who helped establish endowed chairs and professorships that play a critical role in advancing the faculty members’ instructional programs and research.
“We are grateful for the generosity of those who are investing in the future of the University,” President David E. Daniel said. “Their contributions are critical to attracting and retaining such accomplished faculty members and advancing groundbreaking research that characterizes nationally recognized research universities such as UT Dallas.”
The event will be held at 3 p.m. in the Naveen Jindal School of Management Executive Dining Room. The University community is encouraged to join the honored faculty members’ families and special guests at the ceremony.
The 11 faculty members who will be invested hold professorships and chairs in the School of Arts and Humanities, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Naveen Jindal School of Management.
“We are grateful for the generosity of those who are investing in the future of the University. Their contributions are critical to attracting and retaining such accomplished faculty members and advancing groundbreaking research that characterizes nationally recognized research universities such as UT Dallas.”
Dr. David E. Daniel,
UT Dallas president
Investitures are among the oldest traditions in academia, dating back more than 500 years as a way for universities to honor their most accomplished scholars. Honorees and ceremonial participants don full academic regalia. The honorees will receive medallions symbolizing their achievements.
UT Dallas has more than 100 chairs and professorships. An endowed chair or professorship is one of the highest academic honors that the University can bestow on a faculty member.
Dr. Rebecca Files, who teaches introductory and intermediate accounting in the Jindal School, will be among those recognized Thursday.
“It is such an honor to be named the first Sydney Smith Hicks Faculty Fellow,” said Files, who has taught at UT Dallas since 2009. “I am so thankful for the opportunity to teach and research at UT Dallas. This fellowship is just one more example of the tremendous support I’ve felt from the school.”
The faculty fellow position was created through a gift by Dr. Sydney Smith Hicks, a Plano entrepreneur who serves as a Life Member of the UT Dallas Development Board, a member of the Advisory Board of The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Jindal School and on the JSOM Advisory Council, which she has chaired in the past.
Ceremony Information
Eleven faculty members holding professorships and chairs will be honored at an Investiture Ceremony at 3 p.m. Thursday in the Naveen Jindal School of Management Executive Dining Room, JSOM 1.606.