Endowed professorships and chairs are both an important way to help faculty research groups to flourish and a mark of profound generosity from donors to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
An endowed professorship is established by a donor making a significant gift (> $500,000) to the department. An endowed chair requires a gift of $1,000,000. The principal is held in perpetuity while the interest is used to fund the endowed professorship or chair. All the endowed professorships and chairs in materials science and engineering are “term appointments,” meaning that these appointments are not permanent, but are held for limited terms by the professor who best matches the donor’s criteria. Here is some information about the current materials science and engineering faculty endowments:
Blacutt-Underwood Professorship in Materials Science
This endowed professorship was created by a generous gift from Brian Underwood and Carol Blacutt-Underwood. Brian is an alumnus of CHMS, the former combined department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, holding an M.S. degree awarded in 1991. The Blacutt-Underwood Professorship supports a person who exhibits excellence as a professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Professor Subhash Risbud was the first holder of this position, followed by Sabyasachi Sen. Funds from the endowment are awarded annually for use by the selected faculty for teaching, research or outreach. We thank Brian and Carol for their generous support of materials science and engineering. Read more about their story on the UC Davis Giving website.