Support for Innovation
Transforma Gifts Endowed professorships give faculty and their students freedom to explore new areas
BY BECKY OSKIN
“Endowed chairs are transformative tools for bringing world-class faculty to UC Davis and enabling them to do amazing things.” – Nicholas Pinter
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UC DAVIS COLLEGE OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE
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ndowed chairs play a vital role in advancing the College of Letters and Science’s mission, empowering rising faculty stars to pursue revolutionary ideas and students to dive into research opportunities and innovative teaching alongside them. “Endowed chairs are transformative tools for bringing world-class faculty to UC Davis and enabling them to do amazing things,” said geomorphologist Nicholas Pinter, who holds the Roy J. Shlemon Chair in Applied Geosciences in the Depart-
ment of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Seventeen endowed chairs and three professorships are held in the College of Letters and Science, thanks to the generosity of donors such as Roy Shlemon, a consulting geologist based in southern California. The most recent endowment — the Louise H. Kellogg Chair in Geophysics — was created in honor of Distinguished Professor Louise Kellogg, who died in 2019. The $2 million gift from Doug Neuhauser, Kellogg’s husband, recognizes her
