Distinguished professor in the context of "Nicholas B. Suntzeff"

Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a tenured faculty member considered the best in their field. It is akin to the rank of distinguished professor at other universities.

The appointment can be granted to any Yale faculty member and is made by the President of Yale University and confirmed by the Yale Corporation. Up to forty professors can hold the title at the same time. The position was established through a 1918 bequest from John William Sterling, and the first Sterling Professor was appointed in 1920.

Institute professor is the highest title that can be awarded to a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is analogous to the titles of distinguished professor, university professor, or regents professor used at other universities in recognition of a professor's extraordinary research achievements and dedication to the school. At MIT, institute professors are granted a unique level of freedom and flexibility to pursue their research and teaching interests without regular departmental or school responsibilities; they report only to the provost. Usually no more than twelve professors hold this distinction at any one time.

Institute professors are initially nominated by leaders representing either a department or school. The chair of the faculty then consults with the Academic Council and jointly appoints with the president an ad-hoc committee from various departments and non-MIT members to evaluate the qualifications and make a documented recommendation to the president. The final determination is made based upon recommendations from professionals in the nominee's field. The case is then reviewed again by the Academic Council and approved by the executive committee of the MIT Corporation. The position was created by President James R. Killian in 1951, and John C. Slater was the first to hold the title.

Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (born 10 August 1951) is an Indian-American neuroscientist. He is known for his experiments and theories in behavioral neurology, including the invention of the mirror box. Ramachandran is a distinguished professor in UCSD's Department of Psychology, where he is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition.

After earning a medical degree in India, Ramachandran studied experimental neuroscience at Cambridge, obtaining his PhD there in 1978. Most of his research has been in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics. After early work on human vision, Ramachandran turned to work on wider aspects of neurology including phantom limbs and phantom pain. Ramachandran also performed the world's first "phantom limb amputation" surgeries by inventing the mirror therapy, which is now widely used for reducing phantom pains (with the goal of eliminating phantom sensations altogether in long term), and also for helping to restore motor control in stroke victims with weakened limbs.

Zhang Yimou (simplified Chinese: 张艺谋; traditional Chinese: 張藝謀; pinyin: Zhāng Yìmóu; born 14 November 1950) is a Chinese filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with Red Sorghum (1987), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, he has established himself as a leading figure of China's Fifth Generation directors and one of the most successful directors in the world. Zhang directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Since 2004, Zhang has collaborated with local governments across China to promote tourism through the “Impression” series of outdoor live stage productions, beginning with Impression Liu Sanjie in Yangshuo. Despite his frequent official affiliations, Zhang has, at various points in his career, fallen foul of Chinese censors.

One of Zhang’s early recurring themes is the resilience of ordinary people, as in To Live (1994) and Not One Less (1999). Beginning with Hero (2002), which ushered the Chinese film industry into the era of big-budget blockbusters, his work increasingly reflected an interest in grand narratives and critical engagement with politics and history, as in Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), One Second (2020) and Under the Light (2023). His films are also noted for their rich use of colour, as in Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), and for their portrayals of women that propelled “Mou Girls” to stardom, such as Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Ni Ni. His highest-budgeted film to date is the all-star The Great Wall (2016), which became his greatest bomb. His highest-grossing film to date is Full River Red (2023), which became the seventh highest-grossing film of all time in China. Zhang was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 2010 and from Boston University in 2018. In 2022, he joined the Beijing Film Academy as a distinguished professor.