Costica Bradatan from the Honors College and Fred Davis from the Rawls College of Business have been designated Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professors.
Costica Bradatan and Fred Davis were named Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professors Thursday (Feb. 29) at the Texas Tech University Board of Regents meeting held in Wichita Falls.
To be designated a Horn Professor is the highest honor received by a Texas Tech faculty member. The recognition, named after the university’s first president, is bestowed upon a faculty member who has attained national and/or international recognition in their areas of research or other creative, scholarly achievement.
“Drs. Davis and Bradatan exemplify the epitome of scholarly excellence at Texas Tech,” said Provost and Senior Vice President Ron Hendrick. “Their unwavering commitment to both students and pioneering scholarship has earned them the Horn Professor designation, a pinnacle toward which our faculty aspire.”
Professor of Humanities Costica Bradatan joined the Honors College in 2006. Bradatan received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from the University of Bucharest in 1997 and 1998. He received his doctorate from Durham University, in the United Kingdom, in 2004. After receiving his Ph.D., he served as a John S. Knight Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University and as a Havighurst Postdoctoral Fellow at Miami University. He held faculty positions at University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Notre Dame as well as universities throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia. He is an Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland, in Australia. Bradatan has distinguished himself with an exceptional body of work as a researcher, writer and teacher. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books, and his work has been translated into more than 30 languages. His areas of expertise are religion and philosophy.
“This designation is above all, a recognition of the Honors College, of the research, writing and teaching that is done here,” Bradatan said. “We may be a small college but what we’re doing is not small. I am grateful to the Honors family for their collegiality, to Dean Hernandez for nominating me and shepherding the application, and to my colleagues, inside and outside the college, who served on the selection committee. I want to thank everybody for their trust. I will use the Horn professorship to do what I’ve always done – to contribute to the visibility of Texas Tech both nationally and internationally.”
Professor and Bobby Stevenson Chair for Information Technology, Fred Davis, joined the Rawls College of Business in 2015. Davis received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1986. He has held faculty positions at University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, The University of Maryland and University of Arkansas. Davis has developed a substantial and impressive research record, and his overriding programmatic line of research examines information systems with a focus on multiple overlapping domains. Professor Davis’ current citation count exceeds 240,000.
“Being designated a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech is the paramount honor of my career,” Davis said. “President Horn urged Texas Tech’s entering class of 1925 to embrace worldwide aspirations befitting the vast West Texas Plains. My research on technology acceptance has had the good fortune to generate broad societal impacts worldwide. I am proud to contribute to Texas Tech’s research mission.
“It is deeply gratifying to be part of an institution making surefooted progress toward world-class stature. My inspiration for continued leadership is spurred by this recognition. Surely President Horn would be pleased with Texas Tech’s achievements, although he might not be surprised: for Texas Tech, the best is yet to come.” =
About Horn Distinguished Professors
In 1966, the Board of Regents established the Horn Distinguished Professorship to recognize scholarly achievement and outstanding service to Texas Tech. Nominations of prospective Horn Distinguished Professors are made in confidence by the college deans, department chairs and other Horn Professors. The Board of Regents has approved the appointment of 93 members of the faculty to Horn Distinguished Professorships. Currently, 22 are actively on the faculty.