April 9, 2014

SEC Announces 2014 Faculty Achievement Award Winners

The Southeastern Conference annually honors faculty members at all 14 SEC universities

By: Bryant Welbourne
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The recipients of the 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Awards were announced by the league office on Wednesday. These annual awards recognize a faculty member from every SEC university who demonstrates outstanding records of teaching, research and scholarship.

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.

“The 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners are some of our nation’s most accomplished instructors, researchers and scholars,” said Dr. Jay Gogue, President of Auburn University and President of the Southeastern Conference. “It is my great pleasure to preside over an intercollegiate athletics conference that not only recognizes their work, but strives to support it as well.”

SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners receive a $5,000 honorarium from the Southeastern Conference and become his or her university’s nominee for the SEC Professor of the Year Award. 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 Spring Meetings in May and the SEC Symposium in September.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said, “These 14 professors positively represent the breadth and depth of education in the Southeastern Conference, and I want to congratulate each of them. The commitment to their students, universities and communities is truly commendable.”

Selected by a committee of SEC Provosts, the SEC Faculty Achievement Awards and the SEC Professor of the Year Award are part of SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference, which sponsors, supports and promotes collaborative higher education programs and activities involving administrators, faculty and students at its 14 member universities.

Below is a list of the 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipients.

University of Alabama, Dr. George Rable, Charles Summersell Chair of Southern History

University of Arkansas, Dr. Carol Reeves, Cecil and Gwendolyn Cupp Applied Professorship in Entrepreneurship

Auburn University, Dr. Geoffrey Hill, Professor and Curator of Birds, Department of Biological Sciences

University of Florida, Dr. Peter Hirschfeld, Professor of Physics

University of Georgia, Dr. Gregory Robinson, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry

University of Kentucky, Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, Professor and Vice Chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

Louisiana State University, Dr. Mark Batzer, Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite Distinguished Professor

University of Mississippi, Dr. John Hall, Arthur C. Guyton Professor and Chair of Physiology and Biophysics

Mississippi State University, Dr. Hossein Toghiani, Thomas B. Nusz Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering

University of Missouri, Dr. Judy Wall, Curator’s Professor in Biochemistry

University of South Carolina, Dr. Kenneth Reifsnider, University Professor of Mechanical Engineering

University of Tennessee, Dr. Daniel Simberloff, Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies

Texas A&M University, Dr. Stephen McDaniel, Professor of Marketing

Vanderbilt University, Dr. Sandra Rosenthal, Jack and Pamela Egan Professor of Chemistry

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About SECU

Using its SECU academic initiative, the Southeastern Conference sponsors, supports and promotes collaborative higher education programs and activities involving administrators, faculty and students at its fourteen member universities. The goals of the SECU initiative include highlighting the endeavors and achievements of SEC faculty and universities; advancing the merit and reputation of SEC universities outside of the traditional SEC region; identifying and preparing future leaders for high-level service in academia; increasing the amount and type of education abroad opportunities available to SEC students; and providing opportunities for collaboration among SEC university personnel.