Congratulations to our new Distinguished and University Professors

USC Village Grand Opening

I write this note today to acknowledge our new Distinguished and University Professors. I’m constantly impressed by the pioneering work happening here, and the dedicated faculty who are breaking new ground in science and the arts while simultaneously instructing and supporting our students.

The new group of Distinguished Professors are: Paula Cannon, C.-C. Jay Kuo, and Elyn Saks; and the University Professors are Viet Thanh Nguyen and Jacob Soll.

These professorships are granted in recognition of work too rich and valuable to scratch the surface in a blog post. Three of the above professors, for example – Saks, Soll, and Nguyen – have also won MacArthur Fellowships, known as “genius” grants. Please check out the USC News piece for an introduction to each of them.

Across our disparate disciplines, USC faculty are making a real, practical difference every day. I will continue to highlight our work in these posts.

I congratulate Professors Cannon, Kuo, Saks, Nguyen, and Soll on the tremendous success they’ve achieved and thank them for the honor they’ve brought to our university. They will be honored next month at a dinner at Town and Gown.

You can see an updated list of all Distinguished and University Professors here.

– Michael W. Quick, March 29, 2018