UB Awards
The Office of Faculty Affairs solicits nominations and administers the nomination process for these four UB awards:
- UB Distinguished Professor
- UB Exceptional Scholar Sustained Achievement Award
- UB Exceptional Scholar Young Investigator Award
- UB Teaching Innovation Award
Guidelines for the above listed awards are distributed annually in January. Units should review the nomination solicitation letter as nomination allocations are specified and may change yearly.
| 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
The rank of UB Distinguished Professor was created in 2002 by the Office of the Provost to honor full professors who have achieved national or international recognition as experts in their disciplines.
Nominee must have
- held rank of Professor for 5 years minimally,
- achieved national or international prominence, and
- established a distinguished reputation as an intellectual/creative leader in their discipline
Dossiers must include all items in the following order:
- Dean’s letter of support
- candidate’s current CV
- ePTF (noting UB Distinguished Professor effective September 1 of subsequent year)
- 5 External letters minimally from prominent disinterested evaluators
- biosketches (not full CVs) required for external evaluators
UB Exceptional Scholar Award Research Recognition Program
Sustained Achievement Award
Established in 2002 to honor outstanding professional achievement that has been focused on a particular body of work over a number of years. This award was created to recognize an unprecedented accomplishment in a senior scholar's career, distinguishing a body of work of enduring importance that has gone beyond the norm in a particular field of study.
Young Investigator Award
The University at Buffalo’s Exceptional Scholar Award for Young Investigators celebrates a recent superior achievement of a scholar in their field of study. This achievement will have distinguished the recipient as an up-and-coming scholar, as well as earned the individual acclaim for their work.
- SA eligibility - nominee must be a tenured, senior faculty.
- YI eligibility - nominee must be a tenure-track or tenured faculty and must have received their terminal degree within past 8 years.
- If faculty holds a Distinguished rank, ineligible for SA award.
- Faculty may only receive one YI award.
Dossiers must include all items in the following order:
- detailed Dean’s letter of recommendation
- candidate’s current CV
- external letters optional, but strongly encouraged
Award for Teaching Innovation
Established to honor exceptional educational pedagogy, UB’s Award for Teaching Innovation created in 2003 recognizes faculty who have contributed significantly to engaging students with new methods and approaches to teaching. The award recognizes faculty members whose innovative teaching methods have a demonstrable positive effect on enhancing student learning-outcomes.
- Nominee must be a full-time faculty.
- Innovative teaching can be demonstrated in a variety of ways, including
- incorporating diverse methods/strategies to engage students;
- designing or revising assessment tools;
- creating digital coursework; incorporating digital tools, including digital environments and augmented reality;
- collaborating with industry partners to create problem-solving hands-on projects;
- instilling ethics in the course, among others.
- Innovations must have a demonstrable effect on enhancing student-learning outcomes.
Nomination must include all items in the following order:
- detailed Dean’s letter of recommendation indicating
- what the teaching innovation is
- how it has benefited students or other faculty and
- how the innovation’s impact has been assessed
- candidate’s current CV
- external letters optional, but strongly encouraged