I would like know if I should use of or from to refer to a university a person belongs to, such as in the following sentence:
We thank Dr. John and Dr. Tom of / from the University of California for their comments and discussion.
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We thank Dr. John and Dr. Tom at the University of California for ...– re_nezCommented Feb 2, 2019 at 20:29
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@re_nez I'd only say that if they weren't physically present at the place at which they are being spoken of.– SamBCCommented Feb 2, 2019 at 20:40
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Yes. Oh. I see. I should have paid more attention to the second part of the sentence.– re_nezCommented Feb 2, 2019 at 20:47
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1 Answer
Either is perfectly valid, though they carry slightly different connotations.
A person from some place or entity just comes from there, is based there, belongs to it or whatever. A person of some entity is generally acting in some sort of official capacity. Representatives on some federal body, sportspeople competing under the colour of their country, and so on. Most of the time that you could reasonably say "of", you could also say "from", but not necessarily vice versa. And, of course, sometimes "of" is appropriate but "from" isn't, such as when talking about members of a sports team.
This, however, is just based on my experience of a life lived (so far) in the English language. Not everyone will have the same understanding, and I am quite sure there are times that "of" is used where I would say "from" is more appropriate.
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2I think you caught the essence of the distinction just fine -- although, as you say, "from" can be used in various contexts so it would be hard to write a truly comprehensive answer. I would also add that "of" can sometimes sound more formal, given the official connotation.– AndrewCommented Feb 2, 2019 at 21:07