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Awards honor exceptional scholars, innovative teachers
Ten of UB’s best and brightest teachers and researchers have been named recipients of the university’s 2012 Exceptional Scholar and Teaching Innovation awards.
They will be honored as part of the fall Celebration of Faculty and Staff Excellence, to be held on Oct. 3 in the Center for the Arts.
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.
This year’s award winners are Zhen Yan, professor, Department of Physiology & Biophysics, and Thomas A. Russo, professor, Department of Medicine, both in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Debabrata Talukdar, professor, Department of Marketing, School of Management; Kazimierz Braun, professor, Department of Theatre & Dance, College of Arts and Sciences; and Chang Wen Chen, professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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 are Sanjukta Das Smith, assistant professor, Department of Management Science and Systems, School of Management; Wenjun Zheng, assistant professor, Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences; Heather M. Ochs-Balcom, assistant professor, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions; and Javid Rzayev, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences.
UB’s Teaching Innovation Award recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching innovation that has had a demonstrable effect on enhancing student-learning outcomes, including innovative uses of educational technology. All UB faculty are eligible for the award.
The Teaching Innovation recipient is Sharon J. Hewner, assistant professor, School of Nursing.
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