SEC Announces 2016 Faculty Achievement Award Winners

March 30, 2016

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

By: Bryant Welbourne
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

Recipients of the 2016 SEC Faculty Achievement Awards were announced by the Southeastern Conference office on Wednesday. These annual awards recognize faculty members from every SEC university who have outstanding records in teaching, research and scholarship.

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

“The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards provide a unique opportunity for our conference to recognize the work of world renowned faculty members from each of our 14 universities,” said Nicholas S. Zeppos, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University and President of the Southeastern Conference. “This year’s winners represent some of the brightest and most accomplished individuals in their disciplines, and I offer each of them my sincerest congratulations.”

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 in April, receives an additional $15,000 honorarium and will be recognized at the SEC Awards Dinner.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said, “The SEC is honored to support the scholarship and research of these 14 men and women, who represent nearly 14,000 full time, tenured professors in the SEC. We appreciate all they have done to empower and encourage students to make a difference, and to positively showcase the Southeastern Conference within the region and around the world.”

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 are the 2016 SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipients. Click here to read bios of the award winners.

Name	University	Title
Seth Panitch	University of Alabama	Professor of Theatre
Dr. Rodolfo Nayga, Jr.	University of Arkansas	Professor and Tyson Chair in Food Policy Economics
Dr. Hanqin Tian	Auburn University	Solon and Martha Dixon Endowed Professor
Dr. Jose Principe	University of Florida	Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering
Dr. Milton Masciadri	University of Georgia	Distinguished University Professor of Music
Dr. W. Brent Seales	University of Kentucky	Professor of Computer Science
Dr. Isiah Warner	Louisiana State University	Boyd Professor of LSU System
Dr. Joey Granger	University of Mississippi	Billy S. Guyton Distinguished Professor
T. Brent Funderburk	Mississippi State University	William L. Giles Distinguished Professor
Dr. Glen Cameron	University of Missouri	Professor of Journalism
Dr. Claudia Benitez-Nelson	University of South Carolina	College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor
Dr. Susan Riechert	University of Tennessee	Distinguished Service Professor
Dr. Rafael Lara-Alecio	Texas A&M University	Regents Professor of Educational Psychology
Dr. Sankaran Mahadevan	Vanderbilt University	Professor of Engineering