April 8, 2015

2015 SEC Faculty Achievement Award Recipients Announced

The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards recognize one faculty member from each SEC university who has excelled in teaching, research and scholarship.

By: Bryant Welbourne
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

The winners of the 2015 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Awards were announced by the league office on Wednesday. These annual awards honor one faculty member from each SEC university who has excelled in teaching, research and scholarship.

Each award winner will become his or her university’s nominee for the 2015 SEC Professor of the Year Award and will receive a $5,000 honorarium from the SEC. The SEC Professor of the Year, to be named later this month, receives an additional $15,000 honorarium and will be recognized at the SEC Awards Dinner in May and the SEC Symposium in September.

“The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards give us a unique opportunity to not only showcase the work of our outstanding faculty members, but to also support their future research and scholarship,” said Nicholas Zeppos, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University and President of the Southeastern Conference. “These 14 men and women are some of the most accomplished and influential leaders in their disciplines, and I offer each of them my sincerest congratulations.”

To be eligible for the SEC Faculty Achievement Award, a professor must be a teacher or scholar at an SEC university; have achieved the rank of full professor at an SEC university; have a record of extraordinary teaching; and a record of scholarship that is recognized nationally and/or internationally.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said, “This year’s SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipients are to be commended for their unwavering dedication to higher education. The SEC is pleased to recognize 14 individuals who have made such a positive impact on our students.”

The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards and the SEC Professor of the Year Award are both selected by SEC Provosts, and the program is administered by SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference. SECU serves as the primary mechanism through which the collaborative academic endeavors and achievements of SEC students and faculty are promoted and advanced.

Below is a list of the 2015 SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipients.

University of Alabama, Dr. Kimberly Bissell, Professor of Journalism

University of Arkansas, Dr. H. Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering

Auburn University, Dr. Bruce Tatarchuk, Gavin Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering

University of Florida, Dr. Sidney Homan, Professor of English

University of Georgia, Dr. Samantha Joye, Athletic Association Professor of Arts and Sciences

University of Kentucky, Dr. Michael Bardo, Professor of Psychology

Louisiana State University, Dr. Suzanne Marchand, LSU Systems Boyd Professor of European Intellectual History

University of Mississippi, Dr. Charles Hussey, Professor of Chemistry

Mississippi State University, Dr. Mark Horstemeyer, William L. Giles Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering

University of Missouri, Dr. Michael Smith, Professor of Animal Sciences

University of South Carolina, Dr. Marina Lomazov, Ira McKissick Koger Professor of Fine Arts

University of Tennessee, Dr. J. Wesley Hines, Postelle Professor of Nuclear Engineering

Texas A&M University, Dr. X. Ben Wu, Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence

Vanderbilt University, Dr. Isabel Gauthier, David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology

Click here to read the biographies of each SEC Faculty Achievement Award winner.