Sandra Rosenthal, Jack and Pamela Egan Professor of Chemistry at Vanderbilt, is a recipient of the 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Award. These annual awards recognize a faculty member from every Southeastern Conference university who demonstrates outstanding records of teaching, research and scholarship.
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 have a record of scholarship that is recognized nationally and/or internationally.
“The 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners are some of our nation’s most accomplished instructors, researchers and scholars,” Jay Gogue, president of Auburn University and president of the Southeastern Conference, said. “It is my great pleasure to preside over an intercollegiate athletics conference that not only recognizes their work, but strives to support it as well.”
SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners receive a $5,000 honorarium from the SEC 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 later this month, receives an additional $15,000 honorarium and will be recognized at the SEC Spring Meetings in May and the SEC Symposium in September.
“These 14 professors positively represent the breadth and depth of education in the Southeastern Conference, and I want to congratulate each of them,” SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said. “The commitment to their students, universities and communities is truly commendable.”
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.
The complete list of 2014 SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners is as follows:
- University of Alabama, George Rable, Charles Summersell Chair of Southern History;
- University of Arkansas, Carol Reeves, Cecil and Gwendolyn Cupp Applied Professorship in Entrepreneurship;
- Auburn University, Geoffrey Hill, professor and curator of birds, Department of Biological Sciences;
- University of Florida, Peter Hirschfeld, professor of physics;
- University of Georgia, Gregory Robinson, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry;
- University of Kentucky, Jayakrishna Ambati, professor and vice chair of ophthalmology and visual sciences;
- Louisiana State University, Mark Batzer, Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite Distinguished Professor;
- University of Mississippi, John Hall, Arthur C. Guyton Professor and Chair of Physiology and Biophysics;
- Mississippi State University, Hossein Toghiani, Thomas B. Nusz Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering;
- University of Missouri, Judy Wall, Curator’s Professor in Biochemistry;
- University of South Carolina, Kenneth Reifsnider, University Professor of Mechanical Engineering;
- University of Tennessee, Daniel Simberloff, Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies;
- Texas A&M University, Stephen McDaniel, professor of marketing; and
- Vanderbilt University, Sandra Rosenthal, Jack and Pamela Egan Professor of Chemistry.