By Erin Dostal The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern Law Prof. Ronald J. Allen has become one of only four Americans to be designated as a Yangtze River Scholar, China’s highest academic award, which was formerly only for Nobel Laureates.

“I am quite pleased and flattered by the award,” said Allen, who is currently in China, in an e-mail. “I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t even know that I’d been nominated until the end of the process.”

Allen traveled to Beijing to accept the designation from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China on Thursday. The award was announced April 2 at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing by the office of Vice President Zhang Baosheng.

Allen is the first law professor to earn the award, which usually goes to scientists or economists, he said. The other three Americans to become Yangtze River Scholars are Nobel Laureates in Economics, and were professors at University of Chicago and Columbia and Stanford universities.

Allen said he wasn’t sure why he was chosen for the award.

“(I got it for) charm and good looks,” he joked. “(But) really, I have no idea. I have worked with the Chinese over the years. Maybe that had something to do with it.”

While the award carries no obligatory duties for the holder to fulfill, Allen said he has been asked him to conduct lectures in China as often as possible.

The Yangtze River Scholar program was founded in 1998 to attract international scholars and scientists to China, as well as to help keep China’s best and brightest people within the country.

Allen said the award is “something like a presidential medal.”

Michael Frisch, a second-year law student, said he’s very proud and surprised that his former professor won the award.

“He’s the stereotypical professor,” Frisch said. “He’s very socratic and he’s very daunting at first, but as you get to know him, he’s a really soft, nice guy.”

Allen earned an undergraduate degree from Marshall University before attending the University of Michigan Law School. He worked and as an assistant professor at State University of New York at Buffalo, and as a professor at the University of Iowa and Duke University before coming to NU.

For the past 10 years, Allen has studied juridical proof, which is “the law of evidence and procedure,” he said. Juridical proof involves witness testimonies and exhibits allowed in court during trials.

Mayer Freed, the associate dean for academic affairs and curriculum and a professor at the Law School, said while many professors at the law school have received various awards in the past, “this is very significant.”

“We’re very proud of him,” Freed said. “The school is certainly very happy about this.”

Reach Erin Dostal at [email protected].