Titles of distinction awarded by the University of Oxford


The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not established chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. However, since there was a limited number of established chairs in these universities and an abundance of distinguished academics it was decided to introduce these Titles of Distinction. 'Reader' and the senior 'Professor' were conferred annually.
In the 1994–95 academic year, Oxford's Congregation decided to confer the titles of Professor and Reader on distinguished academics without changes to their salaries or duties; the title of professor would be conferred on those whose research was "of outstanding quality", leading "to a significant international reputation". Reader would be conferred on those with "a research record of a high order, the quality of which has gained external recognition". This article provides a list of people upon whom the University of Oxford has conferred the title of professor.
In July 1996, the University announced it had appointed 162 new Professors and 99 Readers as part of this move. In January 2001, Congregation's Personnel Committee recommended that the process for awarding titles of distinction should continue biennially, and in October 2001, details of the application process for the 2001–02 academic year were published to that effect, meaning the next awards would be made in October 2002. Awards were then made in 2004, 2006 and 2008. In 2005, a special task force was set up to report back to the University Council about career progression for academics. It made its recommendations in April 2010, when it was decided that the title of Reader should be discontinued and that the title of Professor should continue to be awarded biennially. These measures were given effect by the Vice-Chancellor in May 2010. The next round of awards would be made after Trinity term 2011, but were awarded retrospectively ; the names of that cohort were announced in January 2012. The next set of awards were made in 2014, and further sets have been made annually since.

2025

The following were awarded the title of Professor in September 2025:
  • Daniel Altshuler, Professor of Semantics and Pragmatics
  • Chrystalina Antoniades, Professor of Clinical Neuroscience
  • Caesar Atuire, Professor of Global Health Ethics
  • Sebastian Bacon, Professor of Practice in Research Software Engineering
  • Elizabeth Baldwin, Professor of Economics
  • Derrick Bennett, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology
  • Jelena Bezbradica Mirkovic, Professor of Immunology
  • Michael Biggs, Professor of Sociology
  • Jayne Birkby, Professor of Astrophysics
  • Richard Bryant, Professor of Urology
  • Alfonso Bueno-Orovio, Professor of Computational Modelling
  • Mark Cannon, Professor of Engineering Science
  • Jean-Paul Carvalho, Professor of Political Economy
  • Goylette Chami, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology
  • Maia Chankseliani, Professor of Comparative and International Education
  • David Church, Professor of Precision Oncology
  • Stuart Clare, Professor of Practice in Neuroimaging
  • Lynne Cox, Professor of Geroscience
  • James Davies, Professor of Genomics
  • Sarah De Val, Professor of Cardiovascular Science/Professor of Vascular Biology
  • Volker Deringer, Professor of Materials Chemistry
  • Victoria Elliott, Professor in English and Education
  • Maurice Fallon, Professor of Robotics
  • Marina Filip, Professor of Physics
  • Yarin Gal, Professor of Machine Learning
  • Audrey Gerard, Professor of Immunology
  • Henk Giele, Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery
  • Siân Grønlie, Professor of Old Norse
  • Elizabeth Hallam, Professor of Anthropology
  • Gail Hayward, Professor of Primary Care
  • Geoffrey Higgins, Malcolm and Margaret Howat Professor of Clinical Oncology
  • Laurence Hunt, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Mallika Imwong, Professor of Molecular Parasitology
  • Adrian Kelly, Professor of Ancient Greek Literature
  • Rajesh Kumar Kharbanda, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Aleks Kissinger, Professor of Quantum Computing
  • Jochen Koenigsmann, Professor of Mathematics
  • Julien Labonne, Professor in Economics and Public Policy
  • Bettina Lange, Professor of Law and Regulation
  • Matthew Langton, Professor of Chemistry
  • James Lewis, Professor of Korean History
  • Katrina Lythgoe, Professor in Infectious Disease
  • Brian Marsden, Professor of Practice in Data Management and Research Informatics
  • Christopher Metcalf, Professor of Ancient Literature and Religion
  • Mark Mezei, Professor of Mathematical Physics
  • Borislava Mihaylova, Professor of Health Economics
  • Ira Milosevic, Professor of Neuronal Physiology and Pathology
  • Olivo Miotto, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics
  • Christopher Morton, Professor of Museum Anthropology
  • Manisha Nair, Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health
  • Yuji Nakatsukasa, Professor of Numerical Analysis
  • Karen Margrethe Nielsen, Professor of Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
  • Luc Nguyen, Professor of Mathematics
  • Sarah Ogilvie, Professor of Language and Lexicography
  • Jacinta O’Shea, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Isabella Oyier, Professor of Molecular Epidemiology
  • Fitnat Banu Pakel, Professor of Economics
  • Pier Francesco Palamara, Professor of Statistical Genomics
  • Panagiotis Papazoglou, Professor of Mathematics
  • Simon Park, Professor of Portuguese and Translation
  • Amanda Power, Professor of Medieval History
  • Victor Prisacariu, Professor of Artificial Intelligence
  • Bethan Psaila, Professor of Haematology
  • Karthik Ramasamy, Professor of Haematology
  • Maheshi Nirmala Ramasamy, Professor of Infection and Vaccinology
  • Simon Rinaldi, Professor of Neurology
  • Alexander Ritter, Professor of Mathematics.
  • Oliver Rivero-Arias, Professor of Health Economics
  • Melanie Rupflin, Professor of Mathematics
  • Roberto Salguero-Gomez, Professor of Ecology
  • Thomas Scott-Smith, Professor of Political Anthropology
  • Mark Sheehan, Professor of Bioethics
  • Sarah Snelling, Professor of Practice in Musculoskeletal Science
  • Duncan Sparrow, Professor of Cardiovascular Developmental Biology
  • Nicole Stoesser, Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
  • Jennifer Strawbridge, Professor in New Testament and Early Christian Studies
  • Greg Taylor, Professor of Digital Markets and Competition
  • Patricia Thornton, Professor in the Politics of China
  • Catherine Louise Thwaites, Professor of Experimental Critical Care
  • Sarah Tonkin-Crine, Professor of Health Psychology
  • Stephan Uphoff, Professor of Physical Microbiology
  • Le Van Tan, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases
  • Alexander Vasudevan, Professor of Urban Geography
  • Robert Vilain, Professor of German and Comparative Literature
  • Sam Vinko, Professor of Physics
  • Mara Violato, Professor of Health Economics
  • Timothee Vlandas, Professor of Comparative Political Economy and Social Policy
  • Timothy Walker, Professor of Infectious Diseases
  • Edmond Walsh, Professor of Engineering Science
  • Robert James Wilkins, Professor of Practice in Medical Education
  • Geoffrey Wong, Professor of Primary Care
  • Hua Ye, Professor of Tissue Engineering
  • Alan Young, Professor of Practice in Medical Informatics
  • Noa Zilberman, Professor of Engineering Science

    2024

The following were awarded the title of Professor in September 2024:
  • Tarik Abou-Chadi, Professor of European Politics
  • David Alonso, Professor of Astrophysics
  • Brian Angus, Professor of Medicine
  • Tal Arnon, Professor of Cellular Immunology
  • Andrew Atherstone, Professor of Modern Anglicanism
  • Marko Bacic, Professor of Engineering Science
  • Oliver Bannard, Professor of Adaptive Immunity
  • Edwin Barasa, Professor of Health Economics
  • Julien Berestycki, Professor of Probability and Statistics
  • Ronald Bertus Geskus, Professor of Medical Statistics
  • Corneliu Bjola, Professor of Digital Diplomacy
  • Philip Burnet, Professor of Neuroscience
  • Fabrizio Caola, Professor of Physics
  • Robert Carlisle, Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Stephanie Dakin, Professor of Musculoskeletal Sciences
  • Georgios Deligiannidis, Professor of Statistics
  • Nele Demeyere, Professor of Neuropsychology
  • Christiane Dolecek, Professor of Global Health
  • Daniel Eakins, Professor of Engineering Science
  • Jan Fellerer, Professor of Slavonic Languages
  • Pieter Francois, Professor of Cultural Evolution
  • Elizabeth Gemmill, Professor of Medieval Economic and Social History
  • Fanni Gergely, Professor of Human Cell Biology
  • Paul Goulart, Professor of Engineering Science
  • Catherine Green, Professor of Clinical Biomanufacturing
  • Ivona Hideg, Professor of Organisation Studies
  • Felix Hofmann, Professor of Engineering Science
  • David Humphreys, Professor of Social Policy Evaluation
  • Fadi Issa, Professor of Translational Immunology
  • Neil Ketchley, Professor of Politics
  • Yasmin Khan, Professor of Modern History
  • Moritz Kraemer, Professor of Epidemiology and Data Science
  • Jamie Lachman, Professor of Child and Family Global Health
  • Benn Lawson, Professor of Operations Management
  • Regent Lee, Professor of Interdisciplinary Innovations
  • Stuart Lee, Professor of English Literature
  • Ming Lei, Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology
  • Sheraz Markar, Professor of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery
  • Liliana Minichiello, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
  • Brent Mittelstadt, Professor of Data Ethics and Policy
  • Juthathip Mongkolsapaya, Professor of Viral Immunology
  • Eve Morisi, Professor of Literatures in French and Political Humanities
  • Mavuto Mukaka, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology
  • Trevor Mutton, Professor of Teacher Education
  • Vlad Mykhnenko, Professor of Geography and Political Economy
  • Vidit Nanda, Professor of Mathematics
  • Edward Nye, Professor of French
  • Jill O’Reilly, Professor of Psychology/Computational Cognitive Neuroscience
  • David Preiss, Professor of Metabolic Medicine and Clinical Trials
  • Carlo Rinaldi, Professor of Molecular and Translational Neuroscience
  • Damian Robinson, Professor of Maritime Archaeology
  • Lothar Schermelleh, Professor of Bioimaging
  • James Sheppard, Professor of Applied Health Data Science
  • Justin Sirignano, Professor of Mathematics
  • Adrianne Slyz, Professor of Astrophysics
  • Katherine Southwood, Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
  • Richard Stevens, Professor of Medical Statistics
  • Alan Strathern, Professor of Global History
  • Catherine Swales, Professor of Medical Education
  • Laura Swift, Professor of Greek
  • David Taylor, Professor of English
  • Walter Taylor, Professor of Tropical Medicine
  • Maya Tudor, Professor of Politics and Public Policy
  • Rachel Upthegrove, Professor of Psychiatry
  • Clare Verrill, Professor of Cellular Pathology and Artificial Intelligence
  • Katy Vincent, Professor of Gynaecological Pain
  • Merryn Voysey, Professor of Statistics in Vaccinology
  • Robert Weatherup, Professor of Energy Materials
  • Claire Williams, Professor of Brazilian Literature and Culture
  • Mungo Wilson, Professor of Financial Economics
  • David Withers, Professor of Experimental Cancer Immunology
  • Elizabeth Wonnacott, Professor of Language Science
  • William Wood, Professor of Philosophical Theology
  • Lucy Wooding Kostyanovsky, Professor of History
  • Francesco Zanetti, Professor of Economics
  • Michael Zimmermann, Professor of Human Nutrition