Chancellor's Distinguished Visitors Program
An important component of any university’s stature and the quality of the academic experience it offers is the presence of prominent scholars on campus who spend time engaging the campus community, getting to know students and faculty, and participating in its academic programs and research. With this in mind, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Visitors Program was launched in 2008 as an effort to enhance academic networks at MU by increasing our interactions with world-renowned scholars.
We encourage you to nominate outstanding scholars to be Chancellor’s Distinguished Visitors – particularly those with relationships, past or present, to MU or Missouri. Thanks to the participation of MU faculty, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Visitors Program has supported visits to date by more than 40 scholars. Information about these Distinguished Visitors, as well as information about upcoming scholar visits, is included in this web site.
Through this Program, partial support is provided for the costs of hosting outstanding scholars on campus to deliver lectures, to facilitate the development of joint research, to serve as reviewers of MU academic programs, and to promote other opportunities for networking. An important and further goal of the project is to develop more explicit and longer-lasting relationships with these individuals by placing post-docs in their labs, inviting them to serve as members of graduate student dissertation committees, offering adjunct membership on the MU faculty, and generally promoting their participation in our academic programs.
Three changes are being made to the Program, effective with the 2012-13 academic year. First, in the past, evidence of outstanding scholarship required membership in one of the major national academies or institutes, e.g., National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and/or individuals who have received prestigious awards and recognitions, such as Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Guggenheim Fellows. As we go forward, we have decided to focus not only on senior level invitees who have already achieved such recognition but also on those on clear paths toward their achievement. Second, requests up to $5000 and possibly more will be considered. Third, although we believe that logistical support for making arrangements for visitors is best managed by academic host units, please let us know if assistance in this regard is needed to make a visit possible. We will do our best to respond.
Though not a requirement, please let us know if a proposed visit would address one or more of the Mizzou Advantage areas. As part of Mizzou Advantage, there may be additional funds available for support of symposia. Please see the Mizzou Advantage web site for a description of their programs: http://www.missouri.edu/mizzou-advantage/.
It is recognized that it is not only through this project but also through the efforts of academic units and faculty across campus that many prominent scholars visit MU and engage with our faculty and students, and, since one of our goals is to better inform the MU campus about distinguished visitors who come to our campus, it is our hope that all campus visitors who meet the criteria for this program will be designated as Chancellor’s Distinguished Visitors—regardless of the source of funding for their visits. Over the past several years, we have had several so designated without any funding from the program. Please let us know if you have visitors already scheduled who qualify for this designation.
The Chancellor’s Distinguished Visitors Program has the full support of the Provost and Chancellor. Chancellor Emeritus Richard Wallace provides administrative oversight, and a graduate assistant, Daria Kalugina, is working on the project under Richard’s direction.
