(UB)
Office of the Provost
Office of the Provost
Faculty Affairs
About Faculty Affairs
Faculty Development Resources

UB Awards

The Office of Faculty Affairs solicits nominations and administers the nomination process for 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 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

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:

  • Hold rank of tenured Professor,
  • Have achieved national or international prominence, and
  • Have 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.
  • Chair's letter.
  • Candidate's current CV.
  • ePTF noting Distinguished Professor effective Sept. 1 of the following academic year (i.e., March 2026 submission should have an ePTF Sept. 1, 2026, effective date).
  • Minimum of four external letters from prominent disinterested evaluators.
  • Biosketches (not full CVs) required for external evaluators.
UB Distinguished Professor Guidelines  Link to the UB Distinguished Professor Guidelines webpage.
UB Distinguished Professor FAQs  Link to the UB Distinguished Professor FAQs webpage.

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.

Sustained Achievement Award:
  • Nominee must be a tenured, senior faculty.
  • If faculty holds a Distinguished rank, they are ineligible.

Young Investigator Award:

  • Nominee must be an untenured or tenure-track faculty and must have received their terminal degree within the past eight years.
  • Faculty may only receive one Young Investigator 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.
UB Exceptional Scholar Award Guidelines  Link to the UB Exceptional Scholar Award Research Recognition Program Guidelines webpage.
UB Exceptional Scholar Award FAQs  Link to the UB Exceptional Scholar Award Research Recognition Program FAQs webpage.

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 a 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.
UB Award for Teaching Innovation Guidelines  Link to the UB Award for Teaching Innovation Guidelines webpage.