Challis Professorship

The Challis Professorship are professorships at the University of Sydney named in honour of John Henry Challis, an Anglo-Australian merchant, landowner and philanthropist, whose bequests to the University of Sydney allowed for the establishment of the Challis professorships.

In 1880 John Henry Challis bequeathed residuary real and personal estate to the University, "to be applied for the benefit of that Institution in such manner as the governing body thereof shall direct". From the income of the Fund a sum of £7,500 was applied for the payment of half the cost of the erection of a new Chemical Laboratory, and a further sum of £1,900 devoted to the erection of a marble statue of Mr Challis, which has been placed in the Great Hall, opposite to that of Mr W. C. Wentworth. The Challis appointments were then created.

There are currently Challis Professorships in nine different subjects:

The Challis Chair of International Law is one of the world’s oldest professorships in international law having been established since 1921.

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