Faculty Awards

The prestigious University Scholars Program provides three-year awards to faculty members who have demonstrated superior performance in scholarly activities in both research and teaching and who show great promise for future achievements.

Awards of $15,000 per year will be made on a three-year basis to members of the faculty whose work is clearly superior. Nominees for these awards will be carefully screened to assure that those selected are among the very best in their fields. Eligibility to the University Scholars Program is limited to faculty who are tenured or receiving credit toward tenure.

• Past Recipients List

College of Medicine nominations must be reviewed at the college level and receive the endorsement of the dean before moving to campus-level review.  Please pay close attention to the college’s submission deadline.

Note: This process is confidential. A nominator should not inform the individual of his or her nomination. University Scholar Award recipients will be notified by the President in late summer.

Nomination Guidelines

1. Nominators often will be the chair or head of the faculty member’s unit; when this is not the case, it is requested that a nominator submit a copy of the nomination materials to the appropriate head or chair for endorsement.
2. Nominees need not come from the nominator’s own unit.
3. Department heads and chairs are themselves eligible for nomination.
4. Past University Scholars are not eligible for the award.
5. Only tenured or tenure track faculty are eligible for the award.

Required Documents for Nomination

1. Checklist
2. Nominee’s up-to-date curriculum vitae, which should include research funding history and external honors and awards.
3. A detailed statement of justification from the nominator.
4. Outside letters of appreciation or recommendation should not be included or quoted within the nomination.
5. Nominators must make every effort to include complete information on the history of the nominee’s research funding and external awards, and provide evidence of the nominee’s excellence in teaching.
6. Nominators are required to include a  description of what criteria are especially important for defining excellence and national eminence in the nominee’s field of learning.  Keep in mind that nomination materials will be reviewed at the campus level by a panel of faculty from differing disciplines, i.e., non-specialists.
7. Failure to supply all required materials may result in a returned application.
8.  Materials should be submitted electronically as a PDF file to COMFacultyAwards@uic.edu by Monday, February 3, 2025.  

Please see the campus guidelines below for details on nomination format and required materials. All complete submissions must be reviewed by the College Committee on Faculty Awards who will make recommendations to the Executive Dean of the College of Medicine.

• UIC guidelines for the University Scholars award

This appointment was created to recruit and recognize persons who have made a significant impact upon their field through scholarship, creativity and leadership. The criteria used for nomination and appointment within a particular academic field must be ones that recognize only the highest level of attainment in the field. The specification of such criteria and verification that the candidate’s work meets or exceeds them is a major responsibility of the person(s) nominating scholars for consideration as this honor. Individuals selected for the award will receive a one-time $5,000 award payment and a non-salaried non-service appointment as UIC Distinguished Professor effective in the next appointment year.

Definition

The Distinguished Professorship is created to recruit and recognize persons who have made a significant impact upon their field through scholarship, creativity, and leadership. This program shall facilitate the recruitment of the most distinguished scholars in the world.

Criteria for Appointment

Criteria for appointment as a Distinguished Professor are discipline-specific. Standards of excellence are not the same for a physical scientist, a creative artist, or a social scientist, for example. The criteria used for nomination and appointment within a particular academic field must be ones that recognize only the highest level of attainment in the field. The specification of such criteria and verification that the candidate’s work meets or exceeds them is a major responsibility of the person(s) nominating scholars for consideration as Distinguished Professors.

The criteria should reflect recognition of:

1. outstanding scholarly/creative contributions;
2. widely regarded leadership status within the nominee’s field;
3. recognition by arbiters of the highest level of intellectual eminence, for example, the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, or the National Academy of Engineering.
4. Nominations of women and underrepresented minority faculty are strongly encouraged.

Processing Guidelines

In cases of internal candidates, recommendations will be reviewed once a year. Department heads should discuss consideration of potential nominees with Executive Dean Rosenblatt prior to developing nomination materials, so that a decision may be made as to which nominations will be put forward by the College. Such discussions should take place by  January 13, 2025  to allow sufficient time for crafting a nominations packet for submission by the campus deadline of February 16, 2024. Nominators are advised not to proceed with soliciting external letters of support until the Dean has given approval to proceed.

If a nomination proposal is approved by the Dean, the final application supporting the nomination must contain at a minimum the following documentation for consideration of this honor:

1. Checklist
2. Detailed letter of support from Department Head to the Dean, including a description of what criteria are especially important for defining excellence and national eminence in the nominee’s field of learning.
3. Letter of support from Dean to the Provost
4. Nominee’s current curriculum vitae
5. Letters of external review from leaders in the field explaining and documenting the national and international impact of the nominee’s work within their field of study. (A minimum of five and maximum of seven letters are required from high-level experts/authorities in the field, a minimum of one international letter is required. The letters must be detailed and must not be from previous collaborators, previous students, previous employers, or others who have worked closely with the nominee. Please include a short bio of each letter author)
6. Nomination packet should be assembled as a single PDF file.

All nominations will be reviewed by a panel of UIC Distinguished Professors appointed by the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. The panel will forward recommendations to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs.

• UIC guidelines for the Distinguished Professor nominations

College of Medicine nominations must be reviewed at the college level and receive the endorsement of the dean before moving to campus-level review.  Please pay close attention to the college’s submission deadline.

This award recognizes faculty for exceptional teaching, effectiveness in curriculum and instructional material development, and the impact their research and service activities have on the classroom. Awardees receive a salary increase of $5,000 ($3,000 from campus resources, $2,000 from the nominating college).

Faculty must be tenured, tenure-track or non-tenure track faculty in the ranks of instructor, assistant, associate or full professor with a full-time appointment at the University of Illinois.  All candidates must have taught at UIC  for a minimum of ten years in order to be eligible.

College of Medicine nominators are urged to provide evidence of the following when submitting a dossier: descriptions of educational products (e.g. educational software) developed by the individual and any evidence of its value (e.g. published reviews of the software); articles describing new teaching methods developed and evidence of their effectiveness; and/or concrete documentation of excellent teaching performance that compares the candidate’s performance to that of other UIC faculty or to faculty nationwide.

Please see the campus guidelines below for details on nomination format and required materials. All complete submissions will be reviewed by the ad hoc Award for Excellence in Teaching Committee who will make recommendations to the Executive Dean of the College of Medicine.  Nominations are due on or before Monday, February 3, 2025, and should be submitted electronically to COMFacultyAwards@uic.edu.

• UIC guidelines for the Award for Excellence in Teaching

This award honors dedicated faculty for their achievements in areas of community-based research, scholarship, service and teaching that address critical community needs, support community advancement, and promote collaboration among UIC and its community partners.  Faculty receiving this honor will receive a one-time $5,000 award payment and will be recognized at the annual Faculty Awards Ceremony and Reception.

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This award recognizes extraordinary contributions and commitment to the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion on our campus and/or the communities it serves.  Faculty receiving this honor will receive a one-time $5,000 award payment and will be recognized at the annual Faculty Awards Ceremony and Reception.

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The Global Engagement Faculty Award (GEFA), recognizes faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to UIC’s global engagement.  The awardee(s) will receive a a one-time $3,000 award payment and will be recognized at the annual Faculty Awards Ceremony and Reception.

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The Distinguished Researcher Award celebrates the efforts and commitment of individuals who have made exceptional progress advancing knowledge in their area of research and scholarship, inspiring and promoting continued excellence at UIC.

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The Rising Star Award is bestowed on individuals who show exceptional promise to become future leaders in their fields.

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The UIC Faculty Mentor of the Year Award recognizes an individual who serves as an outstanding knowledgeable, empathetic guide and leverages their experience to inspire and support mentees in achieving their goals.

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Offered through the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the TRP is a self-nominated, faculty-administered teaching award program.  Awardees receive a $1500 increment to their annual base salary.

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Sponsored by the Graduate College.  Annual award, designed to encourage and reward excellence and innovation in all aspects of graduate mentoring. Up to four awards of $2,000 each.

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Recognizes a faculty team who have demonstrated excellence in interprofessional practice and education (IPE) through teaching innovation at UIC.  $2,500 will be awarded to a faculty team based on their development of innovative curriculum, organizational change, and IPE practice opportunities that fosters a culture of interprofessional collaboration.

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The Office of Technology Management (OTM) sponsors the annual Inventor of the Year award.  Given to one UIC investigator, this award recognizes an outstanding inventor of team of inventors at UIC who have who have made a contribution to the development of intellectual property that significantly impacts their field and society. The award is given based on the criteria of creativity, novelty, and the commercial benefit to society.

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This award recognizes outstanding achievements in multiple aspects of the College’s mission and is a distinct honor for the faculty member and his/her home department. All full time and part time faculty of the College of Medicine are eligible for consideration for the Faculty of the Year Award.​

Nomination Guidelines

1. All full time and part time faculty of the College of Medicine are eligible for this honor. While College administrators and Department Heads are eligible, strong cases must be presented for their receiving the award and should include evidence of a faculty constituency that highly supports their nomination.
2. Any College of Medicine faculty member may make a nomination, although nominators should not be current members of the College Committee on Faculty Awards. The impact of the nominee’s achievements does not need to have occurred in the year of the award. If the nominator is not the head of the nominee’s unit,  the nominator must also submit a copy of the nomination materials to the appropriate head for his or her endorsement.
3. All complete submissions will be reviewed by the College Committee on Faculty Awards, who will make recommendations for the Executive Dean of the College of Medicine. If a campus wishes to use a selection committee to rank order its nominees it may do so and provide that information to the Faculty Awards Committee.

Criteria

Excellence in any or all of the areas listed below.

• Special achievement in University leadership or national/regional society organization or administration.
• Receipt of a prestigious national recognition that reflects positively on the College of Medicine or the University.
• Recognition for outstanding teaching, clinical or research performance.
• Special effectiveness in curriculum or instructional material development.

Required Materials

1. Nominee’s up-to-date curriculum vitae.
2. A detailed letter of support from the nominator, describing the nominee’s accomplishments and contributions to UIC. If the nominator is not the head of the nominee’s unit, the nominator should also submit a copy of the nomination materials to the appropriate head for his or her endorsement.
3. Failure to supply all required materials may result in a returned application.
4. Materials must be submitted electronically as a PDF file to COMFacultyAwards@uic.edu by Friday, March 7, 2025.

NOTE: Nominations for faculty at the Peoria and Rockford campuses may have an earlier deadline at the local level. Please check with your Regional Dean’s Office.

This Chicago campus award is presented to a senior faculty member in the College of Medicine in recognition of excellence in research, service to the profession, or distinction as an educator. The expectation is that this honor will go to an individual who has fulfilled the highest goals of an academician and is nationally or internationally recognized for his or her achievements.

Guidelines

These guidelines are intended to serve as general principles upon which applicants will be evaluated by the ad hoc Distinguished Faculty Award Committee which is appointed annually by the Dean. They are not intended to be all inclusive of selection criteria but rather highlight those which are likely to be given priority. It is important that committee members have some degree of flexibility in the selection process to accommodate nominees who may have particularly unique qualifications.

Active faculty members are eligible for consideration. In the absence of a single professional accomplishment conferring outstanding distinction in teaching, research, clinical service, or administration, the nominee should have achieved distinction in his/her profession over an extended duration as a professor at UIC College of Medicine.  It is strongly recommended that heads seek the advice of their advisory committee to vet recommendations for this award before developing a final nominations packet.

Department Heads — who are de facto distinguished faculty members — with a faculty constituency that highly supports their nomination may be eligible for the award, but with additional scholarship credentials. Among consideration would be an extended period of a meritorious influential role in the development of distinguished persons originating from their department who have been recipients of notable national and international recognition for outstanding personal achievement in teaching, research, or clinical service. Applicants with unusually productive achievements in administration will also be considered.

Required Materials

1. A detailed letter of support from the nominator, describing the nominee’s accomplishments and contributions to UIC. If the nominator is not the head of the nominee’s unit, it is requested that the nominator submit a copy of the nomination materials to the appropriate head for his or her written endorsement.
   Letter should include:
   • Medical student education activities: Recognition received by nominee as a distinguished teacher.  Include details on students trained by the nominee and where they are now (if available).
   • Professional contributions: History of external funding, peer-reviewed publications, study section activities, membership in editorial boards, membership to learned societies, and any recognition received by the nominee as a scholar.
   • Service achievements: Contributions to patient care, the institution, and the community at large, as well as other noteworthy extracurricular accomplishments.
2. Minimum of one internal letter of support from a senior member of the UIC faculty and one objective external letter from an academic leader in the nominee’s field.
3. Nominee’s up-to-date curriculum vitae.
4. Failure to supply all required materials may result in a returned application.
5. Materials must be submitted electronically as a PDF file to COMFacultyAwards@uic.edu by Friday, March 7, 2025.

Chicago department heads are invited to nominate one mid-career or senior faculty member from their unit to receive this honor based on outstanding contributions and achievement in at least one of three areas: teaching, research, or service.

Nominees for the Faculty of the Year category should typically be at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor, or if holding the rank of Assistant Professor should have served on the UIC faculty for greater than 10 years.

It is strongly recommended that heads seek the advice of their advisory committee when selecting the departmental faculty of the year.

All nominations must be submitted using an online form that will be posted here in March 2025.  The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, June 25, 2025. 

• Past Recipients

Chicago department heads are invited to nominate a junior faculty member who has demonstrated strong potential to be a future leader in their chosen field.

Nominees for the Rising Star category should be at the rank of Assistant Professor or Associate Professor and must have served on the UIC faculty for fewer than 10 years.

All nominations must be submitted using an online form that will be posted here in March 2025.  The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, June 25, 2025. 

• Past Recipients

Videos from past Faculty Recognition Ceremonies:

• 2024 Video
• 2023 Video
• 2022 Video

Photos from past Faculty Recognition Ceremonies:

• 2024 photos
• 2023 photos
• 2022 photos
• 2021 photos
• 2019 photos
• 2018 photos
• 2017 photos
• 2016 photos

2024 Awardees List