University Faculty Scholars

Office of the Provost and Office of the Executive Vice President for Research

FY 2025-2026

Program Description

The University Faculty Scholars Program is intended to recognize outstanding mid-career faculty who are on an accelerated path for academic distinction. Eligibility includes faculty who hold the rank of tenured associate or full professor who have been in rank for no more than five years, as well as new hires at this academic level if appointed with tenure. Faculty who hold a distinguished or named professorship cannot simultaneously hold a University Faculty Scholar or Showalter Faculty Scholar designation. The University Policy on Distinguished and Named Professorships and Faculty Scholars (VI.C.1) (www.purdue.edu/policies/human-resources/vic1.html) governs the Faculty Scholars distinction. Deans are responsible for establishing procedures for nominating and approving University Faculty Scholars in their colleges/schools.

The Office of the Provost has authorized 120 University Faculty Scholar awards, as follows:

85 awards will be fully funded by the Provost. These awards will support University Faculty Scholars from all disciplines.
15 awards will be funded jointly by the Office of the Provost and the Showalter Foundation through the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research. These awards will support University Faculty Scholars in the life sciences ⁽¹⁾ and will be named Showalter Faculty Scholars.
20 awards are authorized with the colleges/schools providing full funding for each University Faculty Scholar. It is not anticipated that these awards will be converted to central funding in the future, i.e. the colleges will continue to be responsible for full funding.

Review and Approval Process

Deans are responsible for establishing procedures for nominating and approving University Faculty Scholars in their colleges/schools prior to sending nominations to the Office of the Provost. The nominations for Faculty Scholars, including a summary of the nominees’ accomplishments and requests for approval, should be sent to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at the following email address: approvalsofficeoftheprovost@purdue.edu. The email Subject line should read “Faculty Scholar”. All nominations are requested by March 1, with appointments beginning July 1, for consideration for nomination as a Showalter Faculty Scholar. Nominations for University Faculty Scholars may be submitted at other times to accommodate specific situations, and alternative effective dates can be requested.

All candidates from life sciences ⁽¹⁾ whose nominations are received by March 1 will be considered for nomination as a Showalter Faculty Scholar. If candidates are not selected to be forwarded to the Showalter Selection Committee for approval as Showalter Faculty Scholars, they will be considered for appointment as a University Faculty Scholar. If they are selected as a Showalter Faculty Scholar and following approval by the Showalter Selection Committee at its annual May meeting, nominees will be appointed as Showalter Faculty Scholars on July 1.

Financial Resources

All University Faculty Scholars will be awarded for five years with an annual allocation of $10,000.

If a University Faculty Scholar leaves Purdue prior to the completion of the award period, any uncommitted balance in the centrally funded award account will be returned to the Provost. Units will be responsible for notifying the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs of these events. Appointments may be revoked where performance or other factors are determined to warrant such action.

Assessment

A program assessment report will be prepared annually to determine the impact of these awards on the retention of faculty during and following the five-year award period. The distribution of University Faculty Scholars to the academic colleges/schools, based on the total budgeted count of tenure/tenure track faculty lines (filled and unfilled) in each unit, will be recalibrated every five years with notice provided one year in advance of any adjustments.

[1] Life sciences includes faculty whose expertise is in the following areas:

the environment, including air and water quality
biochemistry and molecular biology
disease prevention, diagnosis, progression, treatment and control
new technologies for food production, preservation, distribution and safety
medical and biophysical instrumentation including the analysis of large datasets.

Indicates Showalter Award

College of Agriculture

Catherine Aime, Botany and Plant Pathology
Laura Bowling, Agronomy
Kari Clase, Technology, Leadership and Innovation
Songlin Fei, Forestry and Natural Resources
Tomas Hook, Forestry and Natural Resources
Jason Hoverman, Forestry and Natural Resources
Ian Kaplan, Entomology
Kee-Hong Kim, Food Science
Christian Krupke, Entomology
Shihuan Kuang, Animal Sciences
Tesfaye Mengiste, Botany and Plant Pathology
Linda Prokopy, Forestry and Natural Resources
Jenna Rickus, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Marisol Sepulveda, Forestry and Natural Resources
Elizabeth Tran, Biochemistry
Bryan Young, Botany and Plant Pathology

College of Education

Laura Bofferding, Curriculum & Instruction
Ayse Ciftci, Counseling Psychology
Marcia Gentry, Gifted, Creative, and Talented Studies
Jennifer Richardson, Curriculum & Instruction

College of Engineering

Alina Alexeenko, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Sunil Bhave, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Zhihong Chen, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jeffrey P. Greeley, Chemical Engineering
Inseok Hwang, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Nicole Key, Mechanical Engineering
Milind Kulkarni, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Julie Liu, Chemical Engineering
Na (Luna) Lu, Civil Engineering
John A. Morgan, Chemical Engineering
Zoltan Nagy, Chemical Engineering
Evgeniy Narimanov, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Vilas Pol, Chemical Engineering
Minghao Qi, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Xiulin Ruan, Mechanical Engineering
Thomas Talavage, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Vikas Tomar, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Satish V. Ukkusuri, Civil Engineering
Pavlos Vlachos, Mechanical Engineering
Sherry Voytik-Harbin, Biomedical Engineering
Andrew Whelton, Environmental and Ecological Engineering
Wenbin Yu, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Pablo Zavattieri, Civil Engineering

College of Health and Human Sciences

Stewart Alexander, Consumer Science
Ximena Arriaga, Psychological Sciences
Regan Bailey, Nutrition Science
Jason Cannon, Health Sciences
Ulrike Dydak, Health Sciences
Michael G. Heinz, Speech. Language, and Hearing Sciences
SooCheong(Shawn) Jang, Hospitality & Tourism Management
Cleve Shields, Human Development & Family Studies

College of Liberal Arts

Shawn Bauldry, Sociology
Jeff Brower, Philosophy
Nadia Brown, Political Science and African American Studies
Kathryn Brownell, History
Michael Johnston, English
Roberta Malo, English
Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, Political Science
Dana Tulodzieki, Philosophy
Christopher Yeomans, Philosophy
Laura Zanotti, Anthropology

School of Management

Brian Dineen, Management
Qi Annabelle Feng, Management
David Gill, Economics
Mohitosh Kerjiwal, Economics
Yanjun Li, Qualitative Methods
Fabrice Lumineau, Management
Umit Ozmel, Management
Chong Xiang, Economics

College of Pharmacy

Chang-Deng Hu, Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

Purdue Polytechnic Institute

Eric Engel, Computer and Informational Technology
Todd Kelley, Technology, Leadership & Innovation
Alejandra Magana, Computer & Informational Technology
Eric Matson, Technology, Leadership & Innovation
Julia Rayz, Computer & Informational Technology
Justin Yang, Computer & Informational Technology
Haiyan Zhang, School of Engineering Technology

College of Science

Claudio Aguilar, Biological Sciences
Suzanne Bart, Chemistry
Guang Chang, Statistics
Sonia Fahmy, Computer Science
Chris Hrycyna. Chemistry
Wen Jiang, Biological Sciences
Birgit Kaufmann, Mathematics
Peijun Li, Mathematics
Nighui Li, Computer Science
Guagn Lin, Mathematics
Matthew Lister, Physics & Astronomy
Chegde Mao, Chemistry
Peristera Paschou, BiologicalSciences
Jon Wilker, Chemistry
Jianlin Xiang, Mathematics
Qianlai Zhuang, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

College of Veterinary Medicine

Mohamed Seleem, Comparative Pathobiology
Wendy Townsend, Veterinary Clinical Sciences