The University Research Excellence Awards recognize the outstanding efforts of faculty and research staff by presenting three annual awards. These have become one of the most prominent symbols of peer recognition at The University of Texas at Austin, not only for career-long accomplishments and scientific research output but also for creative research and artistic endeavors.
The 2023-24 University Research Excellence Awards nomination call is now open. For more information and to submit a nomination, visit the competition website.
Deadline: 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 7, 2024
The University Research Excellence Awards program is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors. The three research awards that recognize outstanding achievement are:
Research Excellence Career Award
The University Research Excellence Career Award ($10,000) recognizes successful, currently active researchers with outstanding career achievements in research activity, publication record and scholarly impact.
Nominee must be UT Austin faculty (tenured or professional track) or permanent full-time research staff member with a current appointment at the time of nomination and award. UT students, postdocs, research associates, visitors and temporary staff are not eligible for this award.
Creative Endeavor Award
The University Creative Endeavor Award ($6,000) recognizes distinct, exceptionally creative work with extraordinary impact and significance to the field of study performed by an established researcher. This award is not for lifetime achievement, but for a single contribution or a series of creative endeavors.
Nominee must be UT Austin faculty (tenured/tenure-track or professional track) and/or permanent full-time research staff with a current appointment at the time of nomination and award. UT students, postdocs, research associates, visitors and temporary staff are not eligible for this award.
Creative endeavors typically go beyond traditional research methods by incorporating elements of imagination, artistic expression and unconventional thinking. Creative endeavors often seek to generate new perspectives, challenge existing paradigms and produce outcomes that are not only intellectually rigorous but also contribute to the broader realms of creativity, culture and innovation.
Examples of creative endeavors might include merging technology and art to explore new forms of expression, incorporation of storytelling and narrative approaches in social science applications, exploring new sonic landscapes and challenging traditional notions of musical composition, using performative research methods to communicate and explore cultural phenomena and more. In essence, a creative endeavor is about pushing the boundaries of conventional thinking, embracing diverse perspectives and fostering innovation to create a richer and more dynamic understanding of the world.
Research Paper Excellence Award
The University Research Paper Excellence Award ($5,000) recognizes the outstanding scholarship and creativity UT faculty and full-time staff members show through peer-reviewed scholarly papers.
Nominations must be peer-reviewed scholarly papers published in the preceding academic year and authored by UT Austin faculty (tenured/tenure-track or professional track) and/or permanent full-time research staff with a current appointment at the time of nomination and award. The nominated author must be the first author of the nominated paper or if not, must confirm responsibility for specific aspects of the paper. The nominated paper must describe research or creative activity conducted by the author while employed by UT. UT students, postdocs, research associates, visitors and temporary staff are not eligible for this award.
Submission deadline
May 7, 2024
Submitted works, if eligible for multiple awards, may only be considered in one category. Nominees will be advised if such a conflict is identified.
2023 University Research Excellence Award Winners
The University Research Excellence Awards recognize the outstanding efforts of faculty and research staff with three annual awards: the Research Excellence Career Award, the Creative Endeavor Award and the Research Paper Excellence Award. These awards have become one of the most prominent symbols of peer recognition at The University of Texas at Austin, not only for career-long accomplishments and scientific research output but also for creative research and artistic endeavors. The winners are:
Research Excellence Career Award
The Research Excellence Career Award recognizes sustained outstanding research achievement by a faculty member or permanently employed staff researcher over many years.
Presented to Debra Umberson, Centennial Commission Professor of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts, for her pioneering research on relationships and health. Umberson, who is the director of the Center on Aging and Population Sciences and a co-founder of the Texas Aging & Longevity Consortium, has spent the past 35-plus years researching aging and life course change; stress and social ties; and gender, sexuality and racial variation in health disparities. Her work has been featured in prominent national journals, and she is one of the few Texas social scientists to be honored with a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health.
Creative Endeavor Award
The Creative Endeavor Award recognizes extraordinary creative achievement and scholarship by a faculty member or staff researcher from January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2022.
Presented to Kate Catterall, associate professor in the College of Fine Arts’ School of Design and Creative Technologies, for “Drawing the Ring of Steel.” The one-day theatrical event in Belfast commemorated the 30-year ethno-nationalist conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, specifically focusing on the 2.2-mile security cordon of 12-foot-tall steel, concrete and barbed wire barricades that encircled Belfast.
Research Paper Excellence Award
The Research Paper Excellence Award recognizes extraordinary achievement by a faculty member or staff researcher who was the principal or sole author of a peer-reviewed scholarly paper reporting original research and published during January 1, 2020 — December 31, 2021
Presented to Dmitry Kireev for his paper “Continuous cuffless monitoring of arterial blood pressure via graphene bioimpedance tattoos.” Kireev published this paper as a research associate in the Cockrell School’s Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he distinguished himself by developing novel biosensors, graphene electronic tattoos, and the fabrication of hybrid wearable active electronics.
Submit Nomination
Submissions are open until 5 p.m. May 7, 2024
For more information, contact honorific-vpr@austin.utexas.edu