In Review
THOMPSON PROFESSOR: John Bruning, the benefactor of the Brian J. Thompson Professorship, and the professorship’s first occupant, Jannick Rolland, pause during a tour of the Robert E. Hopkins Center for Optical Design and Engineering at the Institute of Optics. Bruning, a former CEO of Corning Tropel Corp., is a major supporter of the new center, which Rolland will direct (Photo: Richard Baker).The University honored the achievements of several faculty members this spring with appointments to new professorships established through the generosity of University alumni and friends.
An honor designed to recognize the national stature of a professor’s work, the named positions are part of a longstanding tradition to celebrate the work of Rochester’s faculty.
Among this spring’s honorees:
JONES PROFESSOR: Diane and Michael Jones ’76 congratulate Toni Whited (center) after she was formally installed as the Jones Professor at the Simon School. Whited is the first holder of the professorship (Photo: Richard Baker).Toni Whited, an expert in finance, macroeconomics, and econometrics, was installed as the Michael and Diane Jones Professor of Business Administration at the Simon School, a professorship established by trustee Michael Jones ’76 and his wife, Diane. Michael Jones is senior vice president and senior portfolio manager of Federated Clover Investment Advisors.
WILLETT PROFESSOR: Ronald Schmidt (center) celebrates his installation as the Willett Professor with the post’s namesakes, Joseph ’75S (MBA) and Janice Willett ’78S (MBA), after a ceremony in New York City this spring (Photo: Shannon Taggart).Ronald Schmidt, who developed and chaired the University’s Executive Development (MBA) Program at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, was named the Janice M. and Joseph T. Willett Professor of Business Administration for Teaching and Service, also at the Simon School. The professorship was established by trustee Janice Willett ’78S (MBA), a financial writer and editor, and her husband, Joseph ’75S (MBA), a former chief financial officer of Merrill Lynch and Co. and a retired chief operating officer of Merrill’s European region.
And Jannick Rolland, a professor of optics, was installed as the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering. Named in honor of Thompson, a provost emeritus, former dean of engineering, and a former director of the Institute of Optics, the professorship was endowed by John Bruning, a former CEO of Corning Tropel Corp.
Also scheduled to be formally recognized this spring were historian Thomas Slaughter as the first Arthur R. Miller Professor of History, established by Miller ’56, ’08 (Hon), a University Professor at New York University School of Law and one of the nation’s preeminent scholars of civil procedure; and Susan McDaniel, the director of the Institute for the Family in the Department of Psychiatry, as the Dr. Laurie Sands Distinguished Professor of Families and Health at the School of Medicine and Dentistry. The professorship is named in honor of Sands ’76M (MD), a Rochester physician who died in 1995.
