University Distinguished Professors

Appointment to the rank of University Distinguished Professor is the highest honor Northeastern can bestow upon a faculty member. Those named University Distinguished Professor have earned international recognition and distinction for educational, artistic, and/or scholarly contributions that have been transformative in their field.

Lisa Feldman Barrett, Distinguished Professor of Psychology

A renowned psychologist, Professor Barrett focuses on the nature of emotion through the lenses of psychology and neuroscience. Her Interdisciplinary Affective Science Lab incorporates methods from social, clinical, and personality psychology; psychophysiology; cognitive science; cognitive neuroscience; and visual cognition. She is a research neuroscientist in the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. Her impressive scholarly work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Army Research Institute. Professor Barrett is an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Phil Brown, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences

Professor Brown is an internationally known scholar whose interdisciplinary research in medical sociology addresses environmental justice and social movements, mental health, and the health consequences and social impacts of environmental hazards. He is a widely published expert, and his research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Professor Brown founded Hospitals for a Healthy Environment and regularly assists state and federal agencies concerned with understanding and remediating environmental contamination.

Andrei Zelevinsky, Professor of Mathematics (awarded posthumously)

A brilliant mathematician, Professor Andrei Zelevinsky passed away soon after being selected for this distinction. His vision and the impact on his field will endure, as will the university's respect and gratitude for his scholarship, intelligence, and friendship.

Professor Zelevinsky’s colleagues at Northeastern and universities around the world regarded him as a “towering figure in modern algebra and representation theory” whose work created whole new areas of mathematical research. His work was funded by the National Science Foundation since his arrival at Northeastern in 1991. He was a Humboldt Research Award winner in 2004 and elected a fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012. In addition to his scholarly accomplishments, Professor Zelevinsky helped organize The Math Circle, which continues to bring research-level mathematicians into the classrooms of K–12 students.