What, it is worth asking from time to time, is
a Professor ? The Oxford Dictionary answers the question accurately with the defini- tion: "the holder of a chair in a university." Here the positive plainly implies the negative: a person who dots not hold a chair at a university is not a Professor (unless, as a mark of special dis- tinction, he is on retirement given the title of Professor Emeritus). The question is raised just now by the reassumption of the title by Mr. A. M. Low, who writes a good deal in various places. I say reassumption because Mr. Low used to appear in Who's Who as
Professor A. M. Low ; he still appears there, but without the title. But the voluminous prospectus of the British Institute of Engineering Technology gives the name of the principal of that institution as " Professor A. M. Low, D.Sc., A.C.G.I., M.I.A.E., &c." That " &c." arouses expectations, and fortunately it is possible to satisfy them. A volume has just appeared bearing on its title page the legend: THEY MADE YOUR WORLD, by Prof. A. M. Low,
Associate of the City and Guilds Institute ; Member of the Insti- tution of Automobile Engineers; Fellow of the Chemical Society; President and Fellow of the Institute of Patentees ; Fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators ; Fellow and Chairman Examining Com- mittee Inst. of Chemist Analysts - Sometime Hon. Assist. Pro- fessor of Physics Royal Artillery College ; Formerly Officer Com- manding Royal Flying Corps Experimental Works ; Fellow of the Institute of Commerce ; Principal of the British Institute of Engineering Technology ; Fellow of the Faculty of Science ; Fellow and Past-President of the British Institution of Radio Engineers ; Fellow Institute of Electronics ; Past President
British Interplanetary Society.
If that doesn't cover the &c.," it is hard to think what could. True, it doesn't account for the "Professor," nor even for the "D.Sc.," regarding which Who's Who is equally silent. But it is possible, of course, that Mr. Low has acquired both a chair and a doctorate since that volume went to press.
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