SUNY Awards

SUNY and UB policies and guidelines for awards listed below are distributed annually. The Office of Faculty Affairs solicits nominations for SUNY Distinguished ranks and SUNY Chancellor’s awards, shares current guidelines with all units, and administers the nomination process for the four Distinguished Rank awards and the five Chancellor’s Awards.

Nominations must be routed through each department/unit selection committee and must be submitted to Faculty Affairs, as noted on the relevant award FAQ.

Award Name Final Nomination Due Date
SUNY Distinguished Librarian Rolling submission
March 1-May 1
SUNY Distinguished Professor Rolling submission
March 1-May 1
SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Rolling submission
March 1-May 1
SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Rolling submission
March 1-May 1
UB Distinguished Professor March 1
UB Exceptional Scholar Award
(Sustained Achievement/Young Investigator)
March 15
UB Teaching Innovation Award March 15
SUNY Honorary Degree July 10
SUNY Chancellor's Horizon Award Oct. 1
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching Nov. 1
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service Nov. 1
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship (To Librarian's Selection Committee) Nov. 1
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship & Creative Activities Nov. 1
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching Nov. 1

SUNY Distinguished Ranks

Created by the SUNY Board of Trustees in 1963 as a prestigious system-level distinction and promotion, the Distinguished Rank awards recognize and reward SUNY’s finest and most accomplished faculty.

The Office of Faculty Affairs administers the nomination process for these four awards:

  • Distinguished Professor
  • Distinguished Librarian
  • Distinguished Service Professor
  • Distinguished Teaching Professor
  • Nominee must have held rank of tenured Professor/Librarian for five years minimally.
  • SUNY Distinguished Professor must have held one year full-time service at UB.
  • SUNY Distinguished Librarian must have at least three years of full-time service at UB.
  • SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor must have at least three years of full-time service at UB.
  • Faculty who have retired or who will retire before appointment to the rank are ineligible.
  • Faculty holding a concurrent administrative appointment above the level of department chair for which they receive extra compensation are ineligible for Distinguished Service Professor.

Dossiers must include all items in the following order:

  • Nomination portfolio cover sheet.
  • Nomination abstract (Word format) with a 200 word maximum.
  • Current CV including:
    • Date at top.
    • Nominee's department.
    • Nominee's appointment to highest rank attained and corresponding date.
    • Additional guidance on Distinguished Professor CV (See SUNY Distinguished Nominations memo).
    • For Distinguished Teaching Professor: Teaching evaluations (see SUNY Distinguished Nominations memo).
  • Internal letters.
    • Five required (chair, dean, provost* letters count toward total).
    • CVs not required.
  • External letters.
    • Five required from prominent disinterested evaluators.
    • Distinguished Teaching Professor: One letter should be from nominee's former student.
    • Complete CVs preferred; biosketches permitted especially from industry evaluators.

SUNY Distinguished FAQ

SUNY Chancellor's Award

The Chancellor's Awards for Excellence are system-level honors that acknowledge and recognize consistently superior professional achievement. These Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence recognize the expertise, commitment and dedication of SUNY’s diverse body of faculty.

The Office of Faculty Affairs administers the nomination process for these five Chancellor's Awards for Excellence:

  • Scholarship and Creative Activities
  • Librarianship
  • Teaching
  • Faculty Service
  • Adjunct Teaching

Chancellor's Awards for Excellence (except Adjunct Teaching)

  • Nominees must be full-time faculty.
  • Nominees for Scholarship and Creative Activities, Faculty Service and Teaching may be tenured/tenure-track or non-tenure track faculty, including Lecturer.
  • Nominees must have completed three years of full-time appointment within the previous five years (years do not need to be consecutive) at the nominating campus prior to the nomination year.
  • Faculty holding Distinguished Ranks may not be nominated for an Excellence Award.
  • Recipients of an Excellence Award may not be nominated for an Excellence Award in another category within a five-year interval.
  • Individuals holding academic appointments preceded by a ‘visiting’ desgination are ineligible.
  • Individuals should not be nominated for promotion to Distinguished Rank and Excellence Award in the same academic year.
  • Posthumous nominations are ineligible.

Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching

  • Nominees must be Adjunct faculty as generally defined by the specific SUNY institution.
  • Nominee must have taught, over the preceding five years a total of courses equivalent to half of a three-year full-time teaching load in the department.
  • Nominee may also serve as adjunct faculty at other education institutions.
  • Nominee must be employed by the nominating campus at the time of nomination.
  • Retirees or individuals serving in full-time professional/academic positions are ineligible.

Dossiers must include all items in the following order:

  • Transmittal letter.*
  • Nomination procedures.*
  • Summary presentation cover sheet.
  • Candidate's Summary: The rationale for the nomination and the primary document available for members at the system-level review. It must address how the nominee excels in each criterion.
  • Dean's letter and evaluative letters.
  • Nominee's current CV.

*Prepared by the President's Office; no action needed by unit.

SUNY Chancellor's Awards FAQ's & Samples

SUNY Chancellor's Horizon Award

The Chancellor's Horizon Awards for Faculty Research and Scholarship was created in 2025 to recognize early career faculty for their scholarly or creative activities.

For questions, contact awards@suny.edu.

  • Tenure-track or tenured faculty (Assistant Professor and Associate Professor).
  • Nomination within first seven years of initial appointment date.
  • Faculty must hold full-time teaching appointment.
  • Must be a current SUNY faculty who has been employed at least one year by SUNY.
  • Nominator must have sufficient disciplinary expertise to determine nominee’s qualifications.
  • Faculty may not apply or self-nominate.

Nomination Portfolio must include:

  • Abstract (200 word maximum) must explain the nominee’s scholarship or creative work and explain its innovative qualities along with its current and potential impact in the field.
  • Nomination letter (two-page maximum) must explain nominator’s connection to nominee and disciplinary qualifications for assessing the nominee’s scholarship or creative work. Bulk of the letter must provide evidence of current recognition and impact of nominee’s work and the promise for field-defining impact in the future. Must also explain strengths of nominee’s work/recognition achieved in relation to early career status.
  • External letter of support (two-page maximum) from a senior scholar in the field who is not from the nominee’s dissertation committee or from their degree-granting institution. Must explain their qualifications for making a determination of the nominee’s caliber as a scholar/artist and provide evidence for the current recognition & impact of the nominee’s work and the promise for future field-defining impact.
  • Nominee’s brief CV (two-page maximum).

Notes:

  • Each unit may submit one nomination.
  • Submissions that include additional information or exceed page limits will be disqualified.

SUNY Chancellor's Horizon Award FAQ