Faculty & Staff Excellence

The Fall 2018 Celebration of Faculty and Staff Academic Excellence ceremony was held on Thursday, November 1. Thank you to all who attended.

Registration for the Fall 2018 event is now closed.

In recognition of exceptional faculty merit, the State University of New York Board of Trustees designates leading State University faculty members as Distinguished Professors. This rank is accorded to faculty who have distinguished their campus and State University communities through outstanding academic contributions, including scholarly publications, national and international research presentations, research findings, and the training of students. The State University of New York Board of Trustees grant Distinguished Teaching Professorships to faculty members whose pedagogical accomplishments are extraordinary. The State University of New York Board of Trustees award Distinguished Service Professorships to those whose outstanding academic careers have included a particular focus on serving the university and its larger constituencies.

• Stelios Andreadis, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Christopher S. Cohan, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences
• Steven J. Fliesler, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology
• Andrew S. Whittaker, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
• Zhen Yan, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
• Ezra B.W. Zubrow, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology

In 2002, the State University of New York announced the creation of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, designed to recognize outstanding academic and creative achievements across a broad spectrum of scholarly and artistic fields. Recipients of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities are university faculty members who consistently go above and beyond their teaching and professional duties to make extraordinary contributions to their respective fields.

• Jochen Autschbach, Department of Chemistry
• Laurie K. Read, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
• Kui Ren, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
• Gil I. Wolfe, Department of Neurology

Recipients of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, instituted by State University of New York chancellor Ernest L. Boyer in 1973, have demonstrated outstanding teaching ability through superb classroom performance. They are scholars who bring to their classes broad academic interests, rigorous and innovative teaching methodology, and current, far-reaching knowledge. Their concern for students is evidenced by the individual attention they accord each student and by their commitment to helping students to enhance their scholarly and creative abilities and to attain academic excellence.

• Gail Radford, Department of History
• David F. Watson, Department of Chemistry

Introduced in 1977, the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service honors members of the professional staff whose extraordinary service contributions have significantly enriched the university. The Award in Professional Service is presented to professional staff members who serve energetically, innovatively, and knowledgeably in their fields.

• Rebecca Brierley, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Elizabeth Lidano, Student Conduct and Advocacy

Established in 2008, the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service gives employees in the Classified Services system-wide recognition of exceptional achievements and superior performance of duties. The award in classified service honors those employees who continuously demonstrate outstanding achievement, commitment to excellence, and exemplary customer service.

• Terri Nusstein, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

The University is pleased to recognize the following faculty/staff members who recently achieved an exceptional milestone, completing 50 years of service to UB.

• Wayne K. Anderson, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Winston W. Chang, Department of Economics
• Ching Chou, Department of Mathematics
• Thomas W. Cusick, Department of Mathematics
• Michael P. Farrell, Department of Sociology
• Robert J. Genco, Department of Oral Biology
• Rossman F. Giese, Jr., Department of Geology
• Clyde F. Herreid, Department of Biological Sciences
• Perry M. Hogan, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
• James M. Holmes, Department of Economics
• Bruce Jackson, Department of English
• Leonard A. Katz, Department of Medicine
• James M. Lawler, Department of Philosophy
• Martin E. Plaut, Department of Medicine
• Joel O. Raynor, Department of Psychology
• Nagesh S. Revankar, Department of Economics
• Vijay C. Swamy, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Myron A. (Mick) Thompson, The Graduate School
• Shari A. Wilson, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
• Jerrold C. Winter, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Darold C. Wobschall, Department of Electrical Engineering

The Office of the Provost created the rank of UB Distinguished Professors to honor full professors who have achieved national or international recognition as experts in their fields of study. UB Distinguished Professors are members of the faculty who have been full professors for a minimum of five years with a demonstrated record of excellence in artistic or scholarly contributions.

• Hui Meng, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Established by the Office of Postdoctoral Scholars in 2009, the Distinguished Postdoc Mentor Award is awarded on an annual basis to faculty members who excel in the mentoring of postdoctoral scholars. A good mentor not only teaches their mentees but also serves as an advocate, advisor and positive role model during the period of direct training and most often, in the following years.

• Peter F. Biehl, Department of Anthropology

The Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award, established by UB's Graduate School in 2011, annually honors and publicly recognizes exceptional excellence in faculty mentoring of graduate students at UB. Award recipients are faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding and sustained support and development of graduate students from course completion through research and subsequent career placement. Nominees for the award must be current members of the UB Graduate Faculty and have held faculty appointment at UB for at least 5 years.

• Paul D. Gollnick, Department of Biological Sciences
• Sargur N. Srihari, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

This award, which was established in the Spring of 2011, recognizes the outstanding faculty mentorship that currently exists at UB and seeks to encourage further faculty commitment to and participation in the undergraduate research and creative experience.

• Michael R. Detty, Department of Chemistry
• Johannes Hachmann, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Larry W. Hawk, Department of Psychology

The Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Achievement was created by the University at Buffalo 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.

• David Castillo, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
• Sherry Chemler, Department of Chemistry
• Matthew S. Dryer, Department of Linguistics
• Xiufeng Liu, Department of Learning and Instruction
• Amanda B. Nickerson, Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology
• Abani K. Patra, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Robert Zivadinov, Department of Neurology

Introduced in 2002, the University at Buffalo’s Exceptional Scholar Award for Young Investigators celebrates a recent superior achievement of a scholar in his/her field of study. Such an achievement will have distinguished the recipient as an up-and-coming scholar, as well as earned the individual acclaim for his/her work, which could be a published work or other scholastic or artistic endeavor.

• Timothy R. Cook, Department of Chemistry
• Seong Won Han, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
• Josep M. Jornet, Department of Electrical Engineering
• Oliver Kennedy, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
• Pinaki Sarder, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences
• Z. Jack Tseng, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences
• Ciaran Williams, Department of Physics
• Lukasz Ziarek, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Established to honor exceptional educational pedagogy, UB’s Award for Teaching Innovation was created in 2003 to recognize 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 effect on enhancing student learning-outcomes.

• Nicole P. Albanese, Deparment of Pharmacy Practice
• Dimitrios Koutsonikolas, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
• Amy VanScoy, Department of Library and Information Studies

View a list of past faculty and staff honorees.