Saif Benjaafar Awarded Prestigious Professorship

ISyE Department Head Saif Benjaafar has been named a McKnight Presidential Professor.

The McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair and the McKnight Presidential Endowed Professorship are among the highest honors for faculty at the University. Recipients are recommended by their college dean and chosen at the discretion of the president based, in part, on their academic and research accomplishments and their contributions to advancing the University among its peers.

The award “recognizes the critical importance of the University’s most distinguished faculty across all disciplines, as well as the importance of strengthening our faculty for the future." The purpose of the McKnight Foundation gift "is to help the University recruit and retain our very best professors and world-class scholars who bring special distinction to the University of Minnesota."

Only four other College of Science and Engineering faculty members currently hold this honor.

More information about the McKnight Presidential awards can be found here: https://scholarswalk.umn.edu/faculty-awards/mcknight-awards/presidential-endowed-chairs.