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McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Program
A program of career development awards for junior faculty
"The sine qua non of a high quality research and graduate university
is the strength and vitality of its faculty."
—Robert T. Holt
Dean of the Graduate School, 1982-1991
(from the March 31, 1983 proposal to create a junior faculty career
development program)
Faculty Development at the University of Minnesota
A university must nurture and sustain the careers of its most
promising new assistant professors in order to build a strong faculty
for the future. The University of Minnesota regards the McKnight Land-Grant
Professorship as a significant component of faculty development at Minnesota,
one that complements other University-wide programs, including the new
Distinguished McKnight University Professorship for outstanding mid-career
faculty, the numerous endowed chairs created through the University's
capital campaign in the 1980s, and the Regents' Professorships held by
eminent senior faculty.
In 1987 the University of Minnesota Graduate School established
the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, a program of career development
awards that enables the University to encourage and retain outstanding
junior faculty. The program was named for a significant endowment gift
from the McKnight Foundation that was then combined with a share of the
Permanent University Fund (PUF); this Fund, released to the University
by the legislature in 1985, came from the original Land Grant to the University.
The name of the Professorship emphasizes this public-private partnership.
Strengthening Our Faculty for the Future
The major purpose of the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship
program is to strengthen the University's faculty for the future. The
program is designed to advance the careers of the most promising junior
faculty at a crucial period in their professional lives, and to develop
their potential to make significant contributions to their scholarly fields.
The program is also intended to foster an esprit de corps among these
future faculty leaders, along with a sense of loyalty to the institution.
Program Description
The McKnight Land-Grant Professorship is a two-year appointment
that includes a research grant of approximately $25,000 in each of the
two years, to be used at the recipient's discretion for expenditures directly
related to their research. In addition, each holder of the Professorship
is awarded either a supplementary research grant or a year's leave to
pursue research during the second year of the award. For recipients on
nine-month appointments, the Graduate School provides up to two months'
summer salary in each of the two summers.
Selection of Recipients
Every year in the spring the Graduate School invites each department
to nominate its most promising tenure-track assistant professor whose
Ph.D. (or comparable degree in professional fields) was awarded within
the past seven years and whose appointment at the University began within
the past three years. The nominations, due by a mid-October deadline,
are reviewed by a selection committee composed of distinguished faculty
from across the University. The recipients are chosen for their potential
to make important contributions to their field; the degree to which their
past achievements and current ideas demonstrate originality, imagination,
and innovation; the potential for attracting outstanding students; and
the significance of their research and the clarity with which it is conveyed
to the nonspecialist. Each year the five or six winners are presented
to the Board of Regents in early spring.
Download
Nomination Form 
McKnight Land-Grant
Professorship Recipients
For additional information about the nominating process, please
contact Myrna Smith, Director, Graduate School Fellowship Office, 321
Johnston Hall, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455; or, telephone at 612-625-7579,
or e-mail at gsfellow@tc.umn.edu
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