Giving Back

Columbia University

As a continuation of their philanthropy, Charles and Lynn recently established two endowed professorships at Columbia University, one in Economics and one in English and Comparative Literature. Charles and Lynn have a long history of supporting educational institutions, especially those that have had, and to continue to have, a positive impact on their lives. Charles and Lynn both attended the Executive Education program at Columbia University. Their sons, Mitchell and Alex, both attended Columbia College of Columbia University.  Mitchell earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in Economics. Alex received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in Economics and Creative Writing.

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Charles and Lynn Zhang Professorship of Economics

Through endowed professorships, Columbia is able to attract and retain the most influential thinkers in economics and finance. Economics professors at Columbia not only contribute their own research, they teach undergraduates and promising graduate students to become the next generation of leaders in this evolving field. Thus far, there have been seven Columbia University graduates who have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. They are: Alvin E. Roth, Kenneth J. Arrow, Milton Friedman, Robert C. Merton, Robert W. Fogel, Simon S. Kuznets, and William Vickrey.

The Trustees of Columbia University have named José A. Scheinkman as the first Charles and Lynn Zhang Professor of Economics. Professor Scheinkman spent 26 years at the University of Chicago, rising from assistant professor to Alvin H. Baum Distinguished Service Professor and Chairman of the Department of Economics. He was also appointed the Theodore A. Wells ’29 Professor of Economics at Princeton University. Since 2013, he has served at Columbia as the Edwin W. Rickert Professor of Economics, a position he will relinquish for the honor of accepting the Zhang Professorship. In addition, from 2012 to 2015, Professor Scheinkman was the chair of the Economic Sciences section of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Charles and Lynn Zhang Professorship of English and Comparative Literature

Professorships are essential to Columbia’s strength, encouraging the leading-edge scholarship and inspiring mentorship that have long distinguished the University. Thus far, there have been five professors who have received the Nobel Prize in Literature. They are: Orhan Pamuk(2006), Derek Walcott(1992), Gabriela Mistral(1945), Joseph Brodsky(1987), and Nadine Gordimer(1991).

Through the establishment of the Charles and Lynn Zhang Professorship of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia will remain home to one of the most promising, innovative, and expert scholars and educators in the field of American literature and culture. The Trustees of Columbia University have named Professor Branka Arsic′ as the inaugural Charles and Lynn Zhang Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Professor Arsić specializes in literatures of the 19th century America and their scientific, philosophical and religious contexts. She has taught at SUNY-Albany, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Brown. Since earning her PhD, Professor Arsic′ has solidified her reputation as a scholar of the highest order. Her work is distinguished by its academic rigor, scope, and originality; bringing a unique and fresh perspective to bear on classic American Literature. Her most recent book, Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau (Harvard University Press, 2016), explores Thoreau’s relation to mourning practices and the natural world, examining ideas and assumptions that surround the work as much as the author himself. Professor Arsic′ is also the author of On Leaving: A Reading in Emerson (Harvard University Press 2010), a book on Herman Meleville, Passive Constitutions or 71/2 Times Bartleby (Stanford University Press, 2007), and many more.

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