The highest honor Harvard Medical School (HMS) can bestow on a faculty member is an appointment to an endowed professorship. Endowed professorships recognize extraordinary clinicians, researchers and educators who serve on the HMS quadrangle or as faculty at one of HMS' affiliated institutions. The Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) also bestows endowed professorships. The funding, term creation and incumbent nominations are managed independently at HSDM. Some HMS endowed professorships are intended to honor expertise within a broad field of study (e.g., psychiatry), whereas others have a more specific focus. Incumbents are appointed in recognition of their singular contributions to medical science in an area supported by a named professorship, as well as their national and often international reputations as leaders in education, clinical expertise, and/or investigation. Endowed professorships stand in perpetuity, generating invaluable support for incumbents, their institutions and HMS while building a history of remarkable scholarship and leadership under one name.
RESPONSIBILITIES BY OFFICE
OFFICE OF ALUMNI AFFAIRS AND DEVELOPMENT: The HMS Office of Alumni Affairs and Development coordinates the required fundraising activities and customizes standard donor terms language for each professorship. Once the initial professorship incumbent has been nominated and approved by the University, AAD typically sponsors a celebratory event.
OFFICE FOR FACULTY AFFAIRS: The HMS Office for Faculty Affairs collaborates with the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, the Office of Finance and the Office of the Dean, among others, to manage professorship incumbent nomination, approval and installation.
OFFICE OF FINANCE: Coordinating with the University’s Recording Secretary and General Accounting offices, the HMS Office of Finance is responsible for the financial aspects of endowed professorships: fund establishment, income activation, expenditure reimbursement and financial stewardship reporting.