What's the purpose of writing one's academic biography in the third person? I see some academics – both professors and grad students – write their biography on their university webpages in the third person, and it sounds really weird.

What's the purpose of writing about oneself, e.g. research accomplishments, research interests, in the third person?  Is it considered more professional to do so?

It reads very arrogant and self-indulgent, so I wonder if I'm just missing something.
When I wrote a biography of myself, it was because someone in administration asked me to so they could put it into a prospectus, where there would be lots of biographies in a row all in the same editorial voice.

It was specifically required to be in the third person for that reason: all the profiles are presented as though they have been written by the omniscient author of the document. It wasn't written that way because I wanted it to be, but for an actual purpose.

Once written, that biography went on file and was put everywhere that needed one. That includes the university website, future grant applications, other advertising material, commendations for students, reports, papers, and sundry other places. Sometimes I copy it there, and sometimes it happens without my even being involved (sometimes without any actual person being involved!).

In particular, it's useful to put it up front on a public website so that collaborators can easily just copy accurate pre-written text in when they need to provide a profile of me for one of their own purposes.



There are places that I've written a first-person biography, which is generally a lot shorter. Those are places that are 1) in my voice, and 2) where it was worth the fuss of rewriting something tailored to the situation. In general, and particularly for things published by the university, my "official" biography just goes back in again, because it's there, it's been edited, and it's comprehensive enough.