UB honors exceptional scholars, innovative teachers

Fifteen of UB’s best and brightest teachers and researchers have been named recipients of the university’s 2016 Exceptional Scholar and Teaching Innovation awards.

All will be honored at the annual Celebration of Faculty/Staff Excellence, to be held on Oct. 20.

The Exceptional Scholars Award honors faculty members for their outstanding research performance at different stages of their careers. There are two awards: Sustained Achievement Awards for senior scholars and Young Investigator Awards for untenured scholars who received their terminal degree within the past eight years. Both awards recognize work that has “garnered public and/or professional accolades beyond the norm.”

Sustained Achievement recipients are selected based on their body of work over a number of years. The award is not meant to serve as a lifetime achievement honor, but rather as recognition for outstanding performance in a recent segment of a scholar’s career.

Recipients for 2016 are Brahm Segal, professor, Department of Medicine; Irus Braverman, professor, School of Law; Thomas Feeley, professor, Department of Communication; Doreen Wackeroth, professor, Department of Physics; M. Laura Feltri, professor, departments of Biochemistry and Neurology; Murali Ramanathan, professor, departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Neurology; and Kui Ren, professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

The Young Investigator Award is presented to untenured researchers whose work has garnered universal acclaim or been completed under the auspices of a prestigious fellowship grant.

Young investigator recipients for 2016 are Samantha Barbas, associate professor, School of Law; Qiaoqiang Gan, assistant professor, Department of Electrical Engineering; Jonathan Lovell, assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Manoranjan Majji, assistant professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Dhavalkumar Shah, assistant professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences; and Helen (Hua) Wang, assistant professor, Department of Communication.

UB’s Teaching Innovation Award recognizes faculty members who have used new methods and approaches teaching that have had a demonstrable effect on enhancing student-learning outcomes, including innovative uses of educational technology. All UB faculty members are eligible for the award.

The Teaching Innovation recipients are Susan Grinslade, clinical professor, School of Nursing, and Steven Ko, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.