Honoring SUNY and UB Award Recipients

July 4th Fireworks Display Over Lake LaSalle to Celebrate Independence Day Photographer: Douglas Levere.

The Office of Faculty Affairs oversees the nomination of outstanding faculty for a host of SUNY and UB awards that recognize excellence in teaching, research, creative activity, and service.

Below we feature our most recent recipients, all of whom have brought distinction to the university and to their departments. We applaud these faculty and all UB faculty for their ongoing pursuit of excellence.

UB and SUNY Award Recipients Through the Years See More Past UB Award Recipients

SUNY Award Recipients

SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship & Creative Activity (2024-25)

2025

Kara M. Kelly

Department of Pediatrics

Michael J. LaMonte

Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health

Jonathan F. Lovell

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Dejan Stojkovic

Department of Physics

Victoria W. Wolcott

Department of History

Janet Yang

Department of Communication

2024

Liise Kayler

Department of Surgery

Blaine Pfeifer

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Michael Rembis

Department of History

Tarunraj Singh

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Michal Stachowiak

Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences

Chi Zhou

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2024-25)

2025

Sarah Handley-Cousins

Department of History

Filip Stefanovic

Department of Biomedical Engineering

2024

Bernard Badzioch

Department of Mathematics

Janice Trigilio Tona

Department of Rehabilitation Science

SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching (2025)

Randy Fernando

Department of Architecture

Mohammad Khawar Zia

Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering

SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service (2024-25)

2025

Paschalis Alexandridis

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

2024

Jason Benedict

Department of Chemistry

Rachael Hageman Blair

Department of Biostatistics

Xuedong Hu

Department of Physics

SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship (2025)

Ophelia Morey

Coordinator, Community Outreach Services for the Health Sciences Library

Deborah Chiarella

Associate Librarian and Liaison to the Departments of Music and Theatre and Dance

SUNY Chancellor's Horizon Award for Faculty Research and Scholarship Honorees (2025)

Yotam Ophir

Department of Communication

Past SUNY Award Honorees See More Past SUNY Award Recipients

UB Award Recipients

UB Distinguished Professor (2023-24)

2025

Sathy Balu-Iyer

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Jonathan Bird

Department of Electrical Engineering

David Hostler

Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences

Jaekyung Lee

Department of Counseling, School & Educational Psychology

Jonathan Lovell

Department of Biomedical Engineering

2024

Hanfeng Li

Department of Mathematics

Erik R. Seeman

Department of History

Xin Sarah Zhang

Department of Ophthalmology

UB Teaching Innovation Award (2024-25)

2025

Anahita Khodadadi

Department of Architecture

Tanya Monestier

Law School

Jennifer Surtees

Department of Biochemistry

2024

Nicholas Bruscia

Department of Architecture

Dalia Antonia Caraballo Muller

Department of History

Ziming Zhao

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

UB Exceptional Scholar - Young Investigator Award (2024-25)

2025

Remi Adelaiye-Ogala

Department of Medicine

Tasha Austin

Department of Learning & Instruction

Saptarshi Chakraborty

Department of Biostatistics

Lindsay Hahn

Department of Communication

Stephan Kolzenburg

Department of Earth Sciences

Viviana Monje

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Nicholas Smith

Department of Pharmacy Practice

2024

Nichol Castro

Department of Communicative Disorders & Sciences

Stephen Santa-Ramirez

Department of Educational Leadership & Policy

John Strong

Department of Learning & Instruction

Shaofeng Zou

Department of Electrical Engineering

UB Exceptional Scholar - Sustained Achievement Award (2024-25)

2025

Derek Daniels

Department of Biological Sciences

Grace Dy

Department of Medicine

Myles Faith

Department of Counseling, School & Educational Policy

Ia Iashvili

Department of Physics

Jun-Xu Li

Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology

Pauline Mendola

Department of Epidemiology & Environmental Health

Yijun Sun

Department of Microbiology & Immunology

X. Christine Wang

Department of Learning & Instruction

Ruogang Zhao

Department of Biomedical Engineering

2024

G. Ekin Atilla-Gokcumen

Department of Chemistry

David Herzberg

Department of History

Salvatore Rappoccio

Department of Physics

Jaekyung Lee

Department of Counselling, School & Educational Psychology / Educational Leadership & Policy

Xiuqian Mu

Department of Ophthalmology

Fraser Sim

Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology

Mostafa Nouh

Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Uttam Singisetti

Department of Electrical Engineering

Jun Xia

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Past UB Award Honorees See More Past UB Award Recipients

Celebration of Faculty & Staff Excellence

Each Fall, the UB community celebrates the achievements of our faculty and staff in the areas of research, teaching, and service. The Celebration of Faculty and Staff Excellence event includes a welcome by President Satish K. Tripathi, remarks by Provost A. Scott Weber, and an on-stage presentation recognizing awardees in the following categories: