assistant professor

American  

noun

1. a teacher in a college or university who ranks above an instructor and below an associate professor.

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assistant professor British  

noun

1. a university teacher lower in rank than an associate professor

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• assistant professorship
  noun

Etymology

Origin of assistant professor

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

Cook, who also serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, said the findings challenge common assumptions about aging and cognition.

From Science Daily • Jun. 13, 2026

An unnamed Ethiopian assistant professor was selected by ICM for its Midwife Leaders Executive Sponsorship Programme, but was rejected for having an "inadequate financial bank statement and an unreliable purpose of travel", the organisers said.

From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026

“A 5% bump, especially in the retail industry where margins are thin, is a big deal,” says Dmitry Mitrofanov, an assistant professor at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and one of the paper’s authors.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026

"Co-hosting these global sporting events is not necessarily a recipe for a lovey-dovey relationship between the co-hosts," says Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, an author and clinical assistant professor of global sport at New York University.

From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026

At its inception, the division had a roster of four faculty members, including John, who was appointed an assistant professor of medical physics and mostly paid out of the Physics Department budget.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik