OPENS: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2025
DEADLINE: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2025
Click here to submit your pre-proposal nomination

The A.D. White Professors-at-Large Program provides a special opportunity for Cornell faculty to bring eminent individuals of international distinction to Cornell for fully-supported, immersive visits that advance the intellectual and creative life of the campus and community.  We are pleased to invite Cornell faculty members, academic departments, or groups of departments to submit A.D. White Professor-at-Large nominations in the subject areas of Arts, Humanities, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. Nominations of individuals who bridge these traditional disciplinary categories also are encouraged.  Examples of previous and current Professors-at-Large in each category include: Arts (John Cleese and Cory Doctorow), Humanities (Toni Morrison and Tayari Jones), Life Sciences (Jane Goodall and May Berenbaum), Physical Sciences (Richard Ernst and Jordan Ellenberg), and Social Sciences (Amartya Sen and Robert Stavins).

A.D. White Professors-at-Large are appointed to six-year terms as non-resident visiting professors at Cornell. During their tenure, A.D. White Professors-at-Large complete two to three 5-to-7-day visits to campus interacting with faculty, students, and members of the community through public lectures, informal meetings, and various other events. These in-person interactions are a hallmark of the A.D. WhiteProfessors-at-Large Program and serve to foster engaged conversations and meaningful experiences among all audiences. Instead of a one-off event, this extended process of engagement also allows for the co-creation of concepts, collaborative initiatives, and collective reflection over a longer period of dynamic and evolving intellectual relationships.

The A.D. White Professors-at-Large Program Administration coordinates all logistics and arrangements foreach visit guided by the interests and expertise of the faculty sponsors, who commit to serving as faculty hosts. A.D. White Professors-at-Large receive a generous honorarium, and their visits to campus and the associated programming are financially and administratively supported by the Program Office.

Nominating an A.D. White candidate is a two-step process:

Step 1: The first step is a pre-proposal submission consisting of a concise, focused letter supporting the candidate based on their stature and promise of significant campus interest. Individual faculty members,academic departments, or groups of departments are welcome to propose candidates. The pre-proposal letter should indicate faculty, departments, and programs that have agreed to support the nomination. It should also include a CV of the candidate.

Pre-proposals are due by Monday, November 24, 2025, and should be submitted online at https://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/2025-26-pre-proposal-submission-form/.

Committee Review Process: The faculty Selection Committee oversees the review of all pre-proposal submissions and the subsequent selection process. Faculty nominators of successful pre-proposals will be invited by the Selection Committee to submit a full nomination proposal in support of their candidate.

Step 2: The full nomination proposal is a programmatic plan that follows a checklist to be shared and discussed with faculty nominators who successfully reach this step in the nominating process.

The full nomination package will be due by Monday, February 16, 2026, and may be emailed to adwhitepal@cornell.edu.

Successful full nominations typically will:

• Explain how a candidate’s accomplishments and activities will benefit the Cornell community.
• Describe how a candidate’s expertise will capture the interest of a wide range of faculty and students in various departments and colleges at Cornell, and the surrounding community.
• Reference the candidate’s ability to sustain over the course of their six-year professorshipthe rigorous demands inherent in brief but busy visits to
• Assess the candidate’s enthusiasm for and readiness to engage with diverse academic andcommunity constituencies in the context of a busy visit schedule.
• Detail how the candidate will contribute to inclusion and diversity in research or practice across Cornell’s campuses over a six-year term.

Committee Review Process: The faculty Selection Committee reviews all invited full nomination proposals. Candidate packages that meet Program expectations and are favorably reviewed by the Selection Committee will be forwarded to the President’s Office and the Board of Trustees for further consideration. The six-year term of appointment for nominees approved by the President and Board of Trustees will begineffective July 1, 2026.

Additional Information:

The Program Office manages all the logistics of the visits. In coordination with faculty sponsors, the Program Administrator provides such services as: scheduling visits; assisting with travel and housing arrangements; payment of honorarium, travel reimbursement, and other expenses; organizing the schedule of activities; room scheduling and publicity; and the management of public lectures. The Program Administrator also assists Professors-at-Large directly while they are in residence to ensure that the visits go smoothly.

Please contact the Program Office at adwhitepal@cornell.edu for any questions related to the nomination and selection process, including identification of the appropriate disciplinary category for a given nominee. We also are pleased to discuss additional details of A.D. White Professor-at-Large appointments or campus visits.  It is recommended that those faculty wishing to write a pre-proposal nomination contact the Program Office in advance for this information.

2025-26 A.D. White Professors-at-Large Selection Committee Members 

Lorenzo Alvisi – Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science
*Eve De Rosa – Dean of University Faculty; Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Department of Human Ecology
Lisa Kaltenegger – Associate Professor, Department of Astronomy; Director, Carl Sagan Institute
Karim-Aly Kassam – Professor, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment
*Thomas A. Lewis – Dean and Vice Provost for Graduate Education; Professor, Department of German Studies; Religious Studies Program
John T. Lis – Professor, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics
*Marla Love – Dean of Students
Alan Mathios – Professor, Department of Economics; Brooks School of Public Policy
Marilyn Migiel – Professor, Department of Romance Studies
Keith Obadike – Professor, Department of Art
Paul Ortiz – Professor, Global Labor and Work, School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR)
Samantha Noelle Sheppard – Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Performing and Media Arts
Robert S. Weiss – A.D. White Professors-at-Large Program Chair; Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences; Senior Associate Dean, The Graduate School

*ex officio members