Five U of T professors receive elite University Professor designation
Published: March 9, 2020
Five University of Toronto professors were recognized last week as University Professors, an elite designation bestowed on a small number of U of T faculty members for their distinguished scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in their fields.
Elizabeth Edwards, Prabhat Jha, Anita McGahan, James Retallack and Frances Shepherd were honoured at a reception attended by President Meric Gertler, Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regher and Chancellor Rose Patten.
The new University Professors are global leaders who’ve had a profound impact on their fields and on society more broadly, President Gertler said.
The five professors have, among them, earned two Rhodes Scholarships, three Royal Society of Canada fellowships, two Order of Canada appointments, two Canada Research Chairs, a Killam Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and an Academy of Management fellowship.
“They have advanced influential new ideas, new methodologies and new technologies,” President Gertler said. “They’ve challenged established paradigms and defined entirely new areas of study – and they’ve changed the way that we understand key challenges, both historical and contemporary.
“Between them, they’ve offered fresh insights into age-old questions concerning society and government; they’ve brought fundamental discoveries to market; and they’ve pioneered innovative approaches to pressing challenges in global health, cancer care and the environment.”
