These are the Innovators and Leaders of Service, Instruction, and Research
Distinguished Service Professor Gretchen Sorin on The Academic Minute
SUNY Distinguished Academy Week on The Academic Minute
Class of 2022
Class of 2021
Class of 2020
Class of 2019
Class of 2017 / Spring 2018
Honorary Medallion of Distinction
Member Profiles
Member Presentations
Distinguished Academy Board
Working Group Committees
Webinars
Download the Distinguished Academy Bylaws.
The rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor was created by the Board of Trustees in 1963 with the first faculty member promoted to the rank in 1964. Since then 1,277 faculty have been honored in one of four specific categories: Distinguished Professorship, Distinguished Teaching Professorship, Distinguished Service Professorship, and Distinguished Librarian. SUNY’s Distinguished faculty include Nobel Laureates, National Academy members, a Fields Medalist, a Dirac Medalist, and National Medal of Technology and Innovation winners.
It was the intent of the Board of Trustees that appointment to the Distinguished Faculty rank carries with it an extraordinary responsibility. Distinguished faculty are expected to function as role models and devote appropriate service to University-wide activities, both ceremonial and professional, such as offering lectures and seminars, informing curricular reform, improving the overall academic experience of students, mentoring junior faculty, and leading inquiry into issues of importance to SUNY and society.
In 2012, at the request of Chancellor Emerita Nancy L. Zimpher, the Board of Trustees officially created the SUNY Distinguished Academy, whose members include all active Distinguished faculty appointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees. The purpose of the Academy is to serve as a formal organization to leverage the collective contributions of its members to build and support academic excellence within the State University.