Rewarding Faculty Research

The Provost’s Office oversees the University Faculty Scholars Program, which was established by Chancellor Randy Woodson in 2012. The program recognizes and rewards emerging academic leaders who turn research into solutions to society’s most pressing issues.

Each year, approximately twenty tenured or tenure-track faculty scholars are identified to receive this honor.  Faculty members selected as University Faculty Scholars carry the title for a five-year period and receive a $10,000 annual supplement that may be used for supplemental salary and benefits or programmatic support.

Selected Scholars

Since the University Faculty Scholars program began in 2012, 84 faculty have received this honor. Here’s the most recent class of scholars.

2015-16 University Faculty Scholars

• Rodolphe Barrangou, associate professor of food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences

• Andrew Behnke, associate professor of youth, family and community sciences

• Chase Beisel, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering

• Sarah Desmarais, associate professor of psychology

• Adriana de Souza e Silva, associate professor of communication

• Ahmed El-Shafei, associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry, and science

• Jody Gookin, associate professor of clinical sciences

• Karen Hollebrands, professor of STEM education

• He (Helen) Huang, associate professor of biomedical engineering

• Jacob Jones, professor of materials science and engineering

• Eric Laber, assistant professor of statistics

• Fanxing Li, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering

• Carolyn Mattingly, associate professor of biological sciences

• Melinda Morrill , associate professor of economics

• Branda Nowell , associate professor of public administration

• Sunkyu Park, associate professor of forest biomaterials

• Leslie Sombers, associate professor of chemistry

• David Tarpy, professor of entomology

• Joseph Tracy, associate professor of materials science and engineering

• Lingjuan Wang-Li, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering

• Gavin Williams, associate professor of chemistry

• Yong Zhu, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering