Texas A&M University has awarded Professor Peter Yu the title of University Distinguished Professor, the University’s highest faculty award. He is among eight scholars awarded this year, representing the Schools of Law, Medicine, and Pharmacy and the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arts and Sciences and Engineering.
The University Distinguished Professor designation is bestowed upon faculty members who are preeminent in their fields and have made at least one transformational contribution or provided an intellectually substantial “leap forward” in their discipline.
Professor Yu is a Regents Professor of law and communication and director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property (CLIP). He holds a joint appointment with the law school and the Department of Communication and Journalism. He is an award-winning teacher, scholar, and world-renowned expert on international intellectual property and communications law. He also writes and lectures extensively on international trade, international and comparative law, and the Chinese legal system.
"In the breadth of his interests, Professor Yu is a true polymath. Add to that his torrid pace of scholarly production — and the impact he has had as a scholar should come as little surprise. It would be hard to imagine a more deserving candidate of this recognition,” said Dean Robert B. Ahdieh, Vice President for Professional Schools & Programs and Dean of Texas A&M Law.
Professor Yu is vice president and co-director of studies of the American Branch of the International Law Association and has served as the general editor of The WIPO Journal, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. His lectures and presentations have spanned over 30 countries on six continents, and he is a frequent international media commentator. His publications have appeared in Chinese and English and have been translated into Arabic, French, Japanese, Spanish, and other languages. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
A 2020 study conducted by the associate director of the Yale Law Library, listed him sixth among the most-cited U.S. legal scholars born after 1970. He was also listed among the top 60 most-cited U.S. legal scholars based on Google Scholar’s h-index, according to a 2022 study by Professor Brian Leiter from the University of Chicago Law School.
Under Professor Yu’s leadership, the Texas A&M Intellectual Property Law Program has been transformed into a leading international hub for research and education in the field. In the last seven years, peer surveys conducted by U.S. News and World Report have ranked Texas A&M continuously among the top 10 intellectual property law programs in the United States.
The 2024 Texas A&M University Distinguished Professors are:
- Robert Ambrose, professor, J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
- Mladen Kezunovic, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
- Mansoor Khan, professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Irma Lerma Rangel School of Pharmacy
- Frances Ligler, professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
- John Mullet, professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Ashok Shetty, professor, Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, School of Medicine
- Alexei Sokolov, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Arts and Sciences
- Peter Yu, professor, School of Law