Nominations for the 2025 SBS Faculty Awards are now open! Please see award descriptions and links to submit nominations below. Nominations are due by March 24.
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Global or International Research Award
Outstanding Public Scholar Award
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award
Distinguished Faculty (Global, Regional or Local) Outreach Award
High-Impact Practices Awards (3 Awards)
Global or International Research Award
This award acknowledges the efforts required to conduct research in countries outside of the U.S. Nominees will have conducted field work or worked with partners or graduate students in the field for a month or more outside of the U.S. and published that work in multiple academic venues. Nominees or self-nominations will have had multiple research projects outside of the country in the last 10 years or while they have been at the University of Arizona.
Nomination package:
- Letter/statement of support (with one or more signatures) or self-nomination detailing the nominee's research contributions and credentials (including related publications, grants, or other awards) and a description of how this work demonstrates significant contributions.
- CV
- One representative work
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
SBS Teaching Innovation Award
This award acknowledges an individual (or group) who has successfully implemented an effective innovation which provides students with exceptional learning experiences that are above and beyond what is expected in a traditional curriculum (e.g., experiential, service-learning experience, etc., that integrates global learning objectives and the environment). All SBS faculty teaching in the College are eligible for nomination unless they have previously received this award.
Please provide a detailed explanation of why your nominee should receive this award, describe the innovation, and discuss its significance and impact.
Nomination package:
- Letter/statement of support or self-nomination detailing the nominee's teaching/pedagogical contributions and credentials (including related resources) and a description of how this work demonstrates significant contributions.
- Faculty member’s one representative work (course work / syllabi and / or other artifact)
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Early Career Teaching
All tenure-track Assistant Professors, Assistant Professors of Practice and Lecturer faculty in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences are eligible for nomination unless they have previously received this award.
Nominations should describe specifically how this faculty member’s teaching is exceptional. Please highlight examples of how this faculty member has provided outstanding instructional excellence.
Nomination package:
- Letter /statement of support (with one or more signatures) or self-nomination detailing the nominee's teaching/pedagogical contributions and credentials (including related resources)
- One representative work
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Early Career Research or Creative Work
This award recognizes significant early career research contributions of tenure-eligible Assistant Professor faculty, early Career Track and Continuing Status faculty with 40 percent or more of research in their work distribution.
Nomination package:
- Letter/statement of support or self-nomination detailing the nominee's research contributions and credentials (including appropriate publications, grants, or other awards) and a description of how this work demonstrates significant contributions.
- CV
- One representative work
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Scholar of the Year
All full-time faculty in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences are eligible for nomination unless they have previously received this award.
This award acknowledges faculty in SBS who have been especially productive in their research, academic, and/or creative endeavors. This should be for a number of scholarly or creative accomplishments, including, outstanding scholarly, academic, or creative endeavors (e.g., publications in top journals in the field; book awards, juried exhibition in widely recognized venue; major externally funded grant). Please provide a detailed explanation of why your nominee should receive this award. Describe the work and discuss its significance/impact and how it has contributed to the faculty, unit, university and/or discipline.
Nomination package:
- Letter/statement of support or self-nomination detailing the nominee's research contributions and credentials (including appropriate publications, grants, or other awards) and a description of how this work demonstrates significant contributions.
- CV
- One representative work
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Outstanding Public Scholar Award
This award recognizes faculty in areas of multiple types of public scholarship that include traditional outreach and also publicly facing scholarship and/or work that is more deeply collaborative with non-university groups or communities. The work is an integral part of the faculty member’s scholarly work.
This award acknowledges a trajectory of work over time rather than during one year.
Nomination package:
- Letter/statement of support or self-nomination detailing the nominee's research contributions and credentials (including appropriate publications, grants, or other awards) and a description of how this work demonstrates significant contributions.
- CV
- One representative work
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award
This award acknowledges innovation in a faculty member’s field or subfields that has social or economic impact. This impact has improved the lives of community members locally or people in other areas of the world. Another area of innovation and impact may be related to students or entrepreneurial education. Another area that will receive consideration involves incorporating opportunities for students to engage in and learn about entrepreneurship and innovation as part of the course design.
General categories of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) and impact are from the global movement around inclusively recognizing innovation and entrepreneurship in promotion and tenure guidelines. These categories include:
- 'Intellectual Property: patent applications, patents awarded, copyrights (including software), trademarks, tangible property (e.g. cell lines), trade secrets & know how, germplasm protection, invention disclosures, novel data products, novel processes & procedures, installation of creative works, commissioned works.
- Sponsored Research: industry sponsored activities (contracting and material transfer agreements, research, services and testing), non-profit and foundation support, government commercialization programs (e.g. STTR and SBIR grants, NSF PFI, state and/or local funding opportunities).
- Use & Licensing: licensed intellectual property and technologies (e.g. database access, cultivar and software releases, novel animal models for industrial use), royalty generated, usage of product/service/methods, discipline and/or unit-specific evidence of societal impact.
- Entity Creation: startup/spinout organizations (including for-profit, non-profits and foundations to allow for broad recognition of societal impact) founded on specific university intellectual property including funds raised/follow-on funding (e.g. private and public commercialization funds beyond SBIR/STTR, private equity investment), revenue/funds generated, people impacted & people employed.
- I & E Career Preparation: students & researchers trained/mentored as part of the work/curriculum, student-led innovations and startups under faculty mentorship, incorporation of I&E skills into classroom, curricular development/enhancements based on I&E work.
- I&E Engagement: engaging with industry, government, non-profit, foundation, community and/or other entities/individuals that can be linked to the university.’ This may include outreach policy, processes, practices, and implementation.
Nomination package:
- Letter/statement of support or self-nomination detailing the nominee's research contributions and credentials (including appropriate publications, grants, or other awards) and a description of how this work demonstrates significant contributions.
- CV
- One representative work
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Outstanding Service
This award acknowledges outstanding and distinguished contributions by a faculty member to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the home unit. All faculty are eligible for nomination unless they have previously received this award.
Please provide a detailed description of the outstanding service provided by the nominee in support of the mission of SBS and the unit and discuss its significance and impact. This award embodies the commitment, dedication, and hard work involved in providing outstanding leadership and/or implementing innovative ideas into the college and unit that provide faculty, staff, and/or students and community members with greater opportunities. Service will be considered outstanding when it is “above and beyond” the expectations of the position and impacts the unit, the college, or, as an extension, the community.
Note: longevity in and of itself is not a sufficient reason for selection.
Nomination package:
- Letter/statement of support or self-nomination detailing the nominee's outstanding service contributions and (previous recognitions if any) and a description of how this work demonstrates significant contributions or impact.
- Optional: A second document with one or more description of the outstanding service work.
- CV
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Outstanding Mentor Award/s
Mentoring is a critical aspect of work in the academy and this award recognizes dedicated faculty whose work with others embodies transformational mentoring. This award honors faculty who are extraordinary in mentoring any, some, or all of the following members of our community: peers, early career scholars, mid-career scholars, future scholars, undergraduate and/or graduate students.
Faculty at any rank are eligible.
Nomination package:
- CV
- Letter/statement of support or self-nomination could include:
- Nominee's contributions as a mentor over time
- Training, credentialing or other educational work (if any)
- Examples of mentoring
- Recognitions / awards (if any) around mentoring
- Innovations, if any, around mentoring
- Impact or how mentoring demonstrates significant contributions
- Research (if any) around mentoring
SBS Dean's Mentoring Award
Mentoring is a critical aspect of work in the academy and this award recognizes faculty in academic units who participate in the Mentor Institute certification program for schools and departments. Faculty who have participated in the Mentor Institute’s training sessions for certification are eligible for this award.
Faculty at any rank are eligible.
Nomination / self-nomination package:
• The Mentor Institute Certificate for your unit
• List of faculty participants in the certification from unit administrator or manager
All supporting documentation must be combined into one pdf document and submitted below.
Distinguished Faculty (Global, Regional or Local) Outreach Award
The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Distinguished Faculty Outreach Faculty Award recognizes sustained faculty outreach. The nomination recognizes the following:
- A significant record of providing outreach in communities on the University of Arizona campus, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and / or other communities (in the state, region, country, or outside of the U.S.)
- A significant amount of work in community, public, private, or nonprofit sectors, domestically or internationally, that offers partnerships, support, or innovation through working toward improving conditions in communities or societies.
Nomination / self-nomination package for the Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award includes:
- One letter of nomination or self-nomination outlining at least three innovative outreach projects / programs completed with the timing and context in which the work was done.
- CV
- A personal statement of the nominee/self-nominee that outlines their approach to the outreach and communities that they work in, innovative or creative delivery methods, and social or economic impact of their community work.
High-Impact Practices Awards
High-impact practices often offer alternative ways in which students can apply classroom or disciplinary knowledge to ‘real life’ issues, practical situations, or other opportunities. They can include capstones; entrepreneurial or creative projects; e-portfolios; internships; learning communities; service learning, community-based learning; collaborative assignments or team projects; global learning; common intellectual experiences; and undergraduate research.
The College is recognizing at least three types of high-impact practices every year:
1) Faculty Mentoring Award for Undergraduate Research
2) Faculty Innovation Award for High-Impact Practice
3) Faculty Innovation Award for Global Student Exchange
Faculty at any rank are eligible.
Faculty Mentoring Award for Undergraduate Research
- CV of faculty member
- Cover letter with the following:
- Description of research group / lab / team structure
- One or more paragraph background on the group/lab/team history.
- Number of undergraduates who have joined the groups/lab/team
- Instructor involvement
- Three or more brief examples highlighting undergraduate research projects (no more than one paragraph each)
- Titles of presentations, conference papers, publications or other ‘products’ of the work (if there are any)
Faculty Innovation Award for High-Impact Practice
- CV of faculty member
- Cover letter with the following:
- Description of group / lab / team structure
- One or more paragraph background on the group/lab/team history.
- Number of undergraduates who have joined the group(s)/lab(s)/team(s)
- Instructor involvement
- Three or more brief examples highlighting undergraduate research projects (no more than one paragraph each)
- Titles of presentations, publications or other work ‘products’ (if there are any)
Faculty Innovation Award for Global Student Exchange
- CV of faculty member
- Cover letter with the following:
- Description of global virtual or in-person (or hybrid) learning exchange / program (country/countries involved)
- One or more paragraph background on the learning exchange
- Number of students involved in each country
- Instructor involvement
- Three or more brief examples highlighting student learning exchange projects (no more than one paragraph each)
- Titles of presentations, publications or other work ‘products’ (if there are any)
- Syllabus (if there is one)