Nicole Woolsey Biggart was “grateful” when she discovered colleagues had selected her for one of three new endowed faculty chairs.

“It gives me resources for research at a time when resources are especially scarce,” said Biggart, the recently named dean of the Graduate School of Management (see related story below) and a recognized leader in the emerging field of economic sociology. “And it was a vote of confidence from my colleagues.”

The UC Davis community Thursday evening (after Dateline’s deadline) celebrated the accomplishments of the three newly endowed professors — Biggart, engineering professor Daniel Chang and physician Ishwarlal Jialal. Also recognized were eight new endowed funds as well as the scholars, chairs and the donors supporting this kind of faculty research.

Biggart will use the income generated by the Jerome J. and Elsie Suran Chair endowment for research on the sociology of markets.

Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef noted that it had been 25 years since the first endowed chair was established at UC Davis. “In 1977, the descendants of two California pioneers, Benjamin Porter and William Sesnon, gave the campus a ranch in Nevada that provided the funding for the Sesnon Chair in Animal Science.”

At the close of the endowed chairs dinner, the chancellor planned to offer a toast to the faculty — “May you continue to flourish in your research, teaching and contributions to the campus and the wider community”— and to the donors for their “exceptional generosity and confidence in the ability of the faculty.

“May we never forget the trust you have placed in us.”

Provost Virginia Hinshaw was set to open the after-dinner program by introducing a number of UC Davis faculty who currently hold endowed chairs or professorships.

“One of the delights of my job is that I have this opportunity to work closely with brilliant and exciting scholars, teachers and researchers every day,” Hinshaw said. “The faculty who hold these endowed chairs and professorships are among our most accomplished, creative and committed university citizens.”

Biggart: an economic sociology expert

Biggart joined the Graduate School of Management faculty at the school’s inception in 1981, shortly after earning her doctoral degree in sociology from UC Berkeley. Her research interests include the social bases of technology adoption; the management of innovations in organizations; and the influence of social networks in microcredit institutions, Asian business groups and direct-selling companies such as Amway and Mary Kay Cosmetics, which she detailed in her book Charismatic Capitalism.

She has lectured internationally on the economic sociology of markets and has authored dozens of articles and reports. In 2002 she became the first non-European co-editor of Organizational Studies, the leading European journal for organizational and management research.

The Suran Chair was established by Senior Lecturer Emeritus Jerome Suran and his wife, Elsie. Biggart and Suran were colleagues in 1982, when they partnered to design and co-teach what would later become the Graduate School of Manage-ment’s capstone course on management policy and strategy.

“Jerry was a strong supporter of our academic efforts here,” she said. “It is good to have known him and have realized his commitment to the work we’re doing.”

Endowment gifts — from major U.S. corporations, private local citizens and retired faculty — will support diverse faculty scholarship in the physical sciences, agriculture, humanities and medicine.

As a result of recent gifts and commitments, UC Davis now has endowment funds capable, when fully funded, of supporting 75 endowed chairs or professorships.

Interest from the endowment may be used for salary enhancement, professional travel, program costs or administrative and research support personnel. An endowment for a distinguished chair establishes a new position and enables the university to recruit from among the leading scholars in the field.

 

The other faculty members appointed to endowed chairs this year are:

Daniel Chang — The Ray B. Krone Professorship

Chang, who received his doctoral degree from the California Institute of Technology, is widely known for his studies on air pollution control and waste treatment.

He was director of an Environmental Protec-tion Agency’s Air Pollu-tion Area Training Cen-ter, a member of the CaliforniaAir Resources Board’s Research Screen-ing Committee and a member of the Inno-vative Clean Air Tech-nologies review panels. He also served as an investigator for several state and federal pollution studies and as chair of the UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1998 to 2001.

The Ray B. Krone Professorship honors late Professor Emeritus Ray Krone, a celebrated expert in sediment transport and harbor design and founder of the UC Davis environmental engineering program. Funded with donations from Krone’s colleagues, friends and family, the professorship supports teaching, research and outreach activities in environmental engineering.

“I hope to be able to keep Ray’s contributions alive and growing,” said Chang. “Given the difficult economic times facing the university,  I intend to use the funds to offer a class on sediment transport to our students in the environmental and water resources programs next year.”

In the spring, Chang will invite three distinguished researchers to campus to present the Ray B. Krone commemorative lectures at the Center for Environmental and Water Resources Engineering seminar series. 

Ishwarlal Jialal — The Robert E. Stowell Chair

Jialal is an internationally renowned expert in diabetes, metabolism and diseases of the blood vessels. He received doctoral and medical degrees from the University of Natal Medical School (now the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine) in Natal, South Africa. He conducted residencies in pathology at the University of Natal and in endocrinology and metabolism at the R.K. Khan and King Edward VIII Hospital in Natal, and he completed fellowships at Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington. He held the C. Vincent Prothro Chair in Human Nutrition Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas for 14 years before joining UC Davis. 

Jialal said he will use the funds to support his laboratory for atherosclerosis and metabolic research.

“The major focus of our research over the next five years is to understand the role of oxidative stress and inflammation in cardiovascular disease, especially as it relates to diabetes,” he said.

The Robert E. Stowell Chair was established by Robert Stowell, the founding chair of the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine, and his wife, Eva Mae.

Jerry Jahn, director of campus development communications, said the newly created funds include the:

• Roy Brophy Professorship in Psychia-try and Behavioral Sciences. Funded by the UC Davis Health System and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, which is named for Roy Brophy, former UC Regent and former chair of the M.I.N.D. institute’s board of directors;

• Paul A. and Marie Castelfranco Chair in the History of Christianity. Given to the College of Letters and Science by retired botany professor Paul Castelfranco and his wife, Marie;

• Mabie-Apallas Public Interest Chair. Established in the School of Law based on a pledge from the William and Inez Mabie Foundation;

• Gerald T. and Lillian P. Orlob Profes-sorship in Water Resources Engineering. Made possible by a gift of professor emeritus Gerald Orlob to honor the memory of his late wife, Lillian;

• Rumsey Endowed Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology. Established in the School of Medicine by the Rumsey Community Fund;

• Alan Stoudemire Professorship in Psy-chosomatic Medicine. Funded by the UC Davis Health System and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is named to honor physician Alan Stoudemire;

• Roger Tatarian Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine. Made possible by a pledge from Eunice Tatarian, the widow of Roger, and currently funded by the Health System and the Department of Internal Medicine; and the

• Lena Valente Endowed Professorship in Medical Education. Set up by the George and Lena Valente Foundation to honor George Valente’s late wife, Lena.

Legend has it that the origin of endowed academic chairs can be traced back to the Greek philosopher Plato, who bequeathed a farm to his nephew with instructions to use the proceeds from the fields to support students and faculty at the academy he had founded. During the Middle Ages, the aristocracy applied the concept to benefit universities and support academic positions.

The prestige associated with an endowed chair allows the university to reward a faculty member for exceptional accomplishments or to attract a new faculty member into an existing position.