Presidential Professors
Presidential Professorships are honorary positions that recognize members of the Bucknell faculty for outstanding achievement in all three areas of University life: teaching, scholarship and service. Professorships are awarded annually to two faculty members for a three-year term, so that six faculty members hold the title of Presidential Professor in any given year. Recipients receive additional funding to support teaching, research and scholarship as well as a paid one-semester leave.
Selection of Presidential Professors is based on a sustained record of distinguished teaching and scholarship as well as significant service to the University and the profession. To qualify for selection, eligible faculty must have served at least four years at the rank of full professor and demonstrate outstanding teaching and scholarship via a nomination letter from a senior faculty member familiar with their work and a summary of their retention, promotion or post-tenure review processes provided by their college's dean.
Eligible faculty members are invited to apply annually in the fall semester.
2026-29 Presidential Professors
David Rovnyak, professor of chemistry and co-chair of the Department of Chemistry, has built a distinguished career as a teacher, scholar and mentor. His work in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy advances both fundamental science and practical medical applications. In collaboration with Geisinger, Rovnyak is developing noninvasive diagnostic tools for liver disease through metabolomics research, while giving Bucknell students the opportunity to contribute to sophisticated biomedical inquiry. His service includes co-chairing the University Review Committee, a key position that ensures thorough peer analysis of candidates for tenure. He is also a nationally recognized educator, co-author of a leading physical chemistry textbook and recipient of Bucknell's Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence. Through the Presidential Professorship, Rovnyak will expand his research on diagnostic modeling, including studies of liver health in patients undergoing emerging weight-loss treatments and the use of complementary analytical methods.
Matthew Slater, professor of philosophy and director of the Bucknell Humanities Center, is widely known for interdisciplinary scholarship that brings philosophy into conversation with science. His work examines how scientific knowledge is classified, communicated and trusted, and his recent and forthcoming books explore biological classification and the norms of scientific practice. An engaged teacher and collaborator, Slater connects students across disciplines, especially in courses that link philosophy with the sciences. He has also served Bucknell in significant leadership roles, including department chair, chair of the Institutional Review Board and director of the Humanities Center. With support from the Presidential Professorship, Slater will pursue a new book project on public trust in science, grounded in collaborative research that draws together the humanities and social sciences.
Margot Vigeant, professor of chemical engineering, is a nationally recognized leader in engineering education whose work has expanded how students and faculty engage with the field. Over the course of a distinguished Bucknell career, she has paired innovative teaching with influential scholarship, including widely used instructional materials and her long-running "Food for Thought" column, which uses food to illuminate engineering concepts. Vigeant has also provided extraordinary leadership to the University, serving in roles that include co-acting president, interim provost and associate dean of engineering. As a Presidential Professor, she will create a broad set of research-based educational materials — including text, video and interactive content — designed to engage diverse learners in engineering and support faculty development at Bucknell and beyond.