Achair or "seat" is also a seat of office, authority, or dignity, such as the chairperson of a committee, or a professorship at a college or university, or the individual that presides over business proceedings.
Chairs at academic institutions are often named after the person who donated the money to support the position. Such a chair often comes with guaranteed funding, which makes them highly coveted.
One of the best known examples is the Lucasian chair of mathematicsatCambridge University in England. This chair was held by Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, Paul Dirac, and Stephen Hawking, among others.
