Faculty members at UC Merced are recognized throughout the year for excellence in a variety of ways, including by their colleagues in the Academic Senate.
This year’s Academic Senate awards honor faculty from across the three schools for their outstanding teaching, research, impacts on their fields and mentorship, as well as their dedication to diversity and scholarly public service in the 2020-21 academic year.
“One of the reasons I am at UC Merced is to contribute to the development of our campus and our academic community, and faculty mentoring is an important piece of this,” said mechanical engineering Professor Ashlie Martini, this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Faculty Mentorship Award. “Certainly, seeing the growth and success of my colleagues brings me great joy and pride in our campus.”
The Academic Senate is the group through which faculty members share in the governance, operation and management of the university. On various committees, Academic Senate members determine academic policy; set conditions for admission and degree-granting; authorize and supervise courses and curricula; and advise the administration on faculty personnel actions, academic space and resource allocation and budgets. The Senate also recognizes faculty members with awards and grants.
“I am so honored to receive the distinguished early career research award and humbled that the Academic Senate believed my work to be worthy of such an award. UC Merced has so many outstanding researchers, several of whom have won this award in the past, and I am grateful to be counted among them,” said developmental psychology Professor Jenny Howell. “Of course, science is a team sport, and I know I wouldn’t have received this distinction without the help of my incredible colleagues, collaborators, graduate students and undergraduates. In many ways, this award serves to recognize all of their hard work, support and dedication.”
This year's award winners:
- Dr. Fred Spiess Award for Distinguished Service to the Academic Senate: Carolin Frank, School of Natural Sciences
- Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching by a Non-Senate Faculty Member: Alexander Khislavsky, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
- Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching by a Senate Faculty Member: Holley Moyes, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
- Distinguished Graduate Teaching and Mentorship by a Senate Faculty Member: Fred Wolf, School of Natural Sciences
- Distinguished Early Career Research (for non-tenured faculty): Jennifer Howell, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
- Distinction in Research (for tenured faculty): ShiPu Wang, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
- Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award: Anna Song, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
- Excellence in Faculty Mentorship Award: Ashlie Martini, School of Engineering
- Contributions to Diversity Award: Rudy Ortiz, School of Natural Sciences
