SEC annually recognizes 14 professors for achievement in teaching, research and scholarship
BATON ROUGE – The winners of the 2015 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Awards were announced by the league office on Wednesday, April 8, and LSU Boyd Professor of European Intellectual History Suzanne Marchand was selected from LSU.
These annual awards honor one faculty member from each SEC university who has excelled in teaching, research and scholarship. Each award winner will become his or her university’s nominee for the 2015 SEC Professor of the Year Award and will receive a $5,000 honorarium from the SEC. 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 Awards Dinner in May and the SEC Symposium in September.
“The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards give us a unique opportunity to not only showcase the work of our outstanding faculty members, but to also support their future research and scholarship,” said Nicholas Zeppos, chancellor of Vanderbilt University and president of the Southeastern Conference. “These 14 men and women are some of the most accomplished and influential leaders in their disciplines, and I offer each of them my sincerest congratulations.”
Marchand received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkley in 1984, and a master’s degree in 1985 and a Ph.D. in 1992, both from the University of Chicago. She began her teaching career in 1991 as an instructor at the University of Chicago. She worked as an assistant professor and then associate professor at Princeton University, before coming to LSU in 1999.
Among Marchand’s numerous awards and honors are being elected president of the German Studies Association; a summer fellowship at Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftgechichte in Berlin, the only American historian of her generation chosen to hold that honor at the time; the Tiger Athletic Foundation Teaching Prize; and an LSU Distinguished Research Master.
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.
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said, “This year’s SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipients are to be commended for their unwavering dedication to higher education. The SEC is pleased to recognize 14 individuals who have made such a positive impact on our students.”
The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards and the SEC Professor of the Year Award are both selected by SEC Provosts, and the program is administered by SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference. SECU serves as the primary mechanism through which the collaborative academic endeavors and achievements of SEC students and faculty are promoted and advanced.
Below is a list of the other 2015 SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipients:
Alabama, Kimberly Bissell, Professor of Journalism
Arkansas, H. Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering
Auburn, Bruce Tatarchuk, Gavin Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering
Florida, Sidney Homan, Professor of English
Georgia, Samantha Joye, Athletic Association Professor of Arts and Sciences
Kentucky, Michael Bardo, Professor of Psychology
Ole Miss, Charles Hussey, Professor of Chemistry
Mississippi State, Mark Horstemeyer, William L. Giles Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Missouri, Michael Smith, Professor of Animal Sciences
South Carolina, Marina Lomazov, Ira McKissick Koger Professor of Fine Arts
Tennessee, J. Wesley Hines, Postelle Professor of Nuclear Engineering
Texas A&M, X. Ben Wu, Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence
Vanderbilt, Isabel Gauthier, David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology
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 14 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.
For more information, visit www.thesecu.com.