A Carolina Distinguished Professorship is one of the highest honors USC accords any faculty member. Since it is a university-wide honor, those honored with the title Carolina Distinguished Professor are among the most outstanding scholars nationally and most are internationally known in their fields.

Criteria for Appointment

1. Recipients must be distinguished scholars in their field. Although this criterion is highly dependent on the breadth of the area of scholarship, a nominee should generally rank among the most distinguished scholars in the field in this country and shall usually possess an international reputation.
2. Recipients must demonstrate excellence in scholarship with a commitment to students and their intellectual development as well as established reputations as distinguished teachers.
3. Recipients should have proven records of interest and concern with the growth and success of this (or a previous) institution and their colleagues, with particular attention to the mentoring of junior colleagues. They should demonstrate some breadth of interest in activities in other fields and departments related to their own, and in participation in University affairs generally.
4. Normally, recipients must be tenured full professors at the University of South Carolina or eligible for initial appointment at that rank. In the former case, it is particularly important that the same high standards be adhered to for selection as in the latter. Appointment or reappointment to a Carolina Distinguished Professorship must not be made merely as a reward for long service, however devoted.