The Office of Faculty Affairs has announced the recipients of several faculty recognition awards, including the UB Exceptional Scholar Sustained Achievement and Young Investigator awards, and the UB Teaching Innovation Award.

UB Exceptional Scholar Award - Sustained Achievement

This award was stablished in 2002 to honor outstanding professional achievement that has been focused on a particular body of work over a number of years. The 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.

This year’s recipients are:

• Rebecca Ashare, professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)
• Chong Cheng, professor, Department of of Chemical and Biological Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
• Souma Chowdhury, professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, SEAS
• Omer Gokcumen, professor, Department of Biological Sciences, CAS
• Hongxin Hu, professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SEAS
• John Panepinto, professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
• Barbara Prinari, professor, Department of Mathematics, CAS
• Greg Wilding, professor, Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Health Professions

UB Exceptional Scholar Award - Young Investigator

This award 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.

This year’s recipients, all of whom are assistant professors, are:

• Federica Bugarelli, Department of Psychology, CAS
• Lauren Fischer, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Architecture and Planning
• Veronica Horowitz, Department of Sociology and Criminology, CAS 
• Kyle Hunt, Department of Management Science and Systems, School of Management
• Kaiyi Ji, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SEAS
• Chris Li, Department of Chemistry, CAS
• Jun Lui, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, SEAS
• Yeh-Hsing (Sima) Lao, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Zhongzheng (Jason) Niu, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, SPHHP
• Chen Wang, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SEAS

UB Teaching Innovation Award

Created in 2003 to honor exceptional educational pedagogy, UB’s Award for Teaching Innovation 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.

This year’s recipients are:

• David Emmanuel Gray, associate professor, Department of Philosophy, CAS
• Celia Martinez-Leon, associate professor of teaching, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, SEAS
• Meredith Scheider, clinical associate professor, Department of Biological Sciences, CAS
• Jared Strohl, teaching assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology, CAS