Internal Awards
| Award Name | Final Nomination Due Date | |
| SUNY Distinguished Professor | July 1 (November decision) October 15 (March decision | |
| SUNY Distinguished Service Professor | July 1 (November decision) October 15 (March decision) | |
| SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor | July 1 (November decision) October 15 (March decision) | |
| SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service | November 1 | |
| SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship & Creative Activities | November 1 | |
| SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching | November 1 | |
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librianship (To Librarian's Selection Committee) | November 1 | |
| SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching | September 3 | |
| UB Distinguished Professor | March 1 | |
| UB Exceptional Scholar Award (Sustained Achievement/ Young Investigator) | March 15 | |
| UB Teaching Innovation Award | March 15 |
UB Distinguished Professor
A candidate for a UB Distinguished Professor must have been a Full Professor for at least five (5) years before nomination, achieved national or international prominence, and maintain a distinguished reputation within his or her chosen field through significant contributions to the research/scholarly literature; or through artistic performance/achievement in the fine arts.
Following the Dean’s consultation with faculty members of a nominee’s Department, the Dean requests a dossier be prepared for each nominee. The dossier should include:
- A Dean's letter of support
- Updated C.V.
- Personnel Transaction Summary form indicating an in-house title of UB Distinguished Professor with an effective date of September 1 of the following academic year
- Minimum five (5) external letters from distinguished figures in the candidates field who are at excellent institutions. These letters should be from disinterested individuals, i.e. persons who have nothing to gain or lose with regard to the ultimate decision concerning the candidate
- Biosketches, not full vitae, of all external evaluators should be included
Following a review of the dossier at the Department level, the Chair should forward the dossier to the Dean along with his/her recommendation. Similarly, the dossier should be reviewed at the School level, and the Dean should forward one electronic copy of the dossier in PDF format to Sofia Tangalos at ubvpfacultyaffairs@buffalo.edu, in the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs along with his/her recommendation. Upon receipt of the dossier in the Provost Office, the nomination will be reviewed by the UB Awards Selection Committee who will, in turn, make its recommendation to the Provost. The Provost will then make a recommendation to the President, whose decision will be final.
The preparation of the dossier and its review should be conducted without the knowledge of the candidate and with the highest degree of confidentiality so that a candidate will not experience any negative reaction should the outcome not be positive.
Exceptional Scholar Award Research Recognition Program
Sustained Achievement Award
(for tenured senior scholars)
- The work individually and collectively, must have garnered public and/or professional accolades beyond the norm for other bodies of work in the identified genre (e.g. citation analysis, critical reviews signifying the work is of enduring importance, completion of work under the auspices of a highly prestigious fellowship or grant).
- This award is for a body of work completed over a number of years. The award is not intended as a lifetime achievement award, but rather as recognition for outstanding performance in a recent segment of a scholar’s career.
Young Investigator Award
(for untenured/tenure-track scholars who received their terminal degree within the past eight years)
- The work must have garnered public and/or professional accolades beyond the norm for other bodies of work in the identified genre. Evidence of such acclaim for a single piece of scholarship would include, but not be limited to, first or acknowledged primary authorship of a lead article in a recognized top journal (hereafter referred to as tier one) for the scholar’s area, publication or performance of a work that is universally acclaimed, or completion of the work under the auspices of a highly prestigious fellowship grant. Evidence of exceptional scholarship could also come from a sustained record of tier one publications or other scholarly/artistic endeavors over a 2-3 year period.
- Heads of decanal units or their designees will make nominations and provide supporting documentation (outside letters are strongly encouraged, but not mandatory, as part of the documentation process). Dossiers should include, as indicated above, a detailed letter of recommendation from the Dean, as well as any supporting documentation appropriate to support the nomination and a copy of the candidate’s current C.V.
- Units may nominate recipients in proportion to the size of their decanal unit (one nominee permitted for each award category per 50 or less full-time faculty, up to a maximum of 3 per category)
- Dean’s offices should submit each nomination as a single copy in PDF format to Sofia Tangalos at ubvpfacultyaffairs@buffalo.edu.
- The sensitivities inherent in these programs and the nature of the supporting documentation make it imperative that all deliberations, communications, and actions of the campus committee remain strictly confidential. Ideally, this should extend to the identity of those selected by the department and/or decanal committee as the campus’ nominees for these honors.
- In making your nominations, please consider the need for disciplinary diversity and balance, as well as gender and racial diversity so that the composition of our honorees reflects the full range of faculty perspectives across the university
- Nominations will be reviewed by the Provost or a designee
Award for Teaching Innovation
Educational pedagogy, including innovations in teaching methods and student learning outcomes, is a focus of significant inquiry and concern within the academy. Recognizing that UB faculty are currently engaged in innovative teaching in their classrooms, it therefore seems appropriate for UB to give special recognition for significant contributions in teaching innovation.
UB's award for Teaching Innovation serves to reinforce to the larger constituencies UB serves (students, their families, and the citizenry of New York State and beyond) that UB – as a major research university – genuinely values innovative approaches to teaching.
The purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding achievement in teaching innovation. Such innovations may include, but are not restricted to, innovative uses of educational technology. Innovations must have a demonstrable effect on enhancing student-learning outcomes.
All full-time UB faculty are eligible for this award.
Nominations should consist of a detailed letter of recommendation from the Dean indicating: what the teaching innovation is, how it has benefited students or other faculty, and how the impact of the innovation has been assessed.
- A copy of the candidate’s current c.v. should accompany the nomination letter.
- Outside letters are appropriate, but not mandatory, as part of the documentation process.
- Dean’s offices should submit each nomination as a single copy in PDF format to Sofia Tangalos at ubvpfacultyaffairs@buffalo.edu.
The sensitivities inherent in these programs and the nature of the supporting documentation make it imperative that all deliberations, communications, and actions of the campus committee remain strictly confidential. Ideally, this should extend to the identity of those selected by the department and/or decanal committee as the campus’ nominees for these honors.
In making your nominations, please consider the need for disciplinary diversity and balance, as well as gender and racial diversity so that the composition of our honorees reflects the full range of faculty perspectives across the university.
Nominations will be reviewed by the Provost or a designee.
* Important: Policies and Guidelines for the above listed awards and faculty recognition are distributed annually during the respective nomination periods. Units and departments should review the nomination solicitation letter from the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and the attached guidelines for updates and supplemental information during each nomination cylce.