Paul A. Lombardo, Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law, was awarded a Regents’ Professorship, the highest academic appointment in the University System of Georgia. Lombardo joins the College of Law’s Bill Edmundson, Regents’ Professor of Law and Philosophy, as one of only two law professors in the system to receive the honor.
Regents’ Professorships are bestowed on distinguished faculty whose scholarly achievements are recognized nationally and internationally as original and influential. Candidates must have sustained scholary productivity and have provided substantial contributions in service to their discipline.
Throughout his career, Lombardo has gained international and national recognition for his extensive volume of scholarship and research spanning the fields of history, law and bioethics.
“Paul’s lifelong body of work in high level policy arenas, as one of the leading international scholars in his field, as an influential educator, and as a first-class colleague who gives selflessly to support the development of others and the institutions with which he has been associated—particularly, Georgia State Law and its Center for Law, Health & Society — exemplifies the best in a Regents’ Professor appointment,” said Steven J. Kaminshine, dean and professor of law.
Lombardo joined Georgia State Law faculty in 2006 after holding dual faculty appointments in the Schools of Law and Medicine at the University of Virginia. In the past decade alone, he has taught, lectured and done research in numerous institutions within the United States and internationally, including Canada, Italy, Pakistan, India, Russia, Austria and the Netherlands.
“It is a great privilege to have the freedom to teach and write as a university professor,” Lombardo said. “I am even more gratified that the Regents have recognized my work with this honor.”
Lombardo is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has served since 2010 as a senior adviser to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, participating in studies such as “Ethically Impossible”: STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 (2011), Moral Science: Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research (2011), and Privacy and Progress in Whole Genome Sequencing (2012).
"We are delighted that Professor Lombardo was given this well-deserved honor,” said Jessica Gabel Cino, associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of law. “He is a pillar in his field, an amazing author, and, most important, just a wonderful person to work with — a true citizen of the Georgia State community."
Lombardo has published more than 250 articles, book chapters, case analyses and reviews on topics in health law, medico-legal history, and bioethics and is best known for his work on the legal history of the American eugenics movement. His books include: Fletcher’s Clinical Ethics, (3rd ed.)( 2005); Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court and Buck v. Bell (2008) and A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era (2011). His publications are held by approximately 2,700 libraries around the world.
“Paul is not only an amazing scholar of international acclaim, but he also is a wonderful colleague and friend who contributes so much to our law school,” said Wendy F. Hensel, associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of law. “He is a mentor in the truest sense of the word to both his students and his colleagues. We are lucky to have him on our faculty.”
His work has been cited in and he has been interviewed by news outlets including the BBC, CBS News, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today, and his scholarship has been the subject of recent documentary films and news programs on foreign broadcast companies in Korea, Switzerland, France, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Lombardo has served in leadership positions for the American Association for the History of Medicine, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, and the American Association of Law Schools. As a member of the Center for Law, Health and Society at Georgia State Law, he teaches Genetics and the Law, the History of Bioethics, Mental Health Law and the Legal Regulation of Human Research.
Lombardo earned his B.A. from Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Missouri, his M.A. from Loyola University of Chicago, and both his Ph.D and J.D. from the University of Virginia.
Along with Lombardo, Georgia State University professors Jenny Yang, Paul Katz, Richard Baskerville and Rose Sevcik were also awarded Regents' Professorships. Amy Lederberg and Binghe Wang's Regents' Professor appointments were renewed. A Regents’ Professorship is granted by the Board for a period of three years.