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.

• 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

• Aaron Patton, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
• Brenna Ellison, Agricultural Economics
• Brian Dilkes, Biochemistry
• Cankui Zhang, Agronomy
• Haley Oliver, Food Science
• Jingjing Liang, Forestry and Natural Resources
• John Couture, Entomology
• Joshua Widhalm, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
• Kingsly Ambrose, Agricultural & Biological Engineering
• Lavanya Reddivari, Food Science
• Luiz Brito, Animal Sciences
• Nicole Widmar, Agricultural Economics
• Patrick Zollner, Forestry and Natural Resources
• Steven Lindemann, Food Science
• Verma Mohit, Agricultural & Biological Engineering

College of Education

• Patricia Morita-Mullaney, Curriculum & Instruction
• Selcen Guzey, Curriculum & Instruction

College of Engineering

• Chi Hwan Lee, Mechanical Engineering
• Craig Goergen, Biomedical Engineering
• Gesualdo Scutari, Industrial Engineering
• Guillermo Paniagua, Mechanical Engineering
• Hector Gomez, Mechanical Engineering
• James Garrison, Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Jing Gao, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Jonathan Poggie, Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Justin Weibel, Mechanical Engineering
• Kejie Zhao, Mechanical Engineering
• Kerrie Douglas, Engineering Education
• Konstantina (Nadia) Gkritza, Civil Engineering
• Meng Cui, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Michael Sangrid, Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Partha Mukherjee, Mechanical Engineering
• Tamara Moore, Engineering Education
• Vaneet Aggarwal, Industrial Engineering
• Vijay Raghunathan, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Wenzhuo Wu, Industrial Engineering
• Young Kim, Biomedical Engineering
• Yung-Hsiang Lu, Electrical and Computer Engineering

College of Health and Human Sciences

• Arielle Borovsky, SLHS
• Bruno Roseguini, Health & Kinesiology
• David Purpura, HDFS
• Heather Eicher-Miller, Nutrition Science
• Jennifer Freeman, Health Sciences
• Jonathan Shannahan, Health Sciences
• Kristine Marceau, HDFS
• Sharon Christ, HDFS
• Thomas Redick, Psychological Sciences

College of Liberal Arts

• Silvia Mitchell, History
• Swati Srivastava, Political Sciences
• Cole Jones, History
• Tara Grillos, Political Sciences
• Trent Mize, Sociology

Mitch Daniels School of Business

• Adem Atmaz, Management
• Brian Roberson, Economics
• Cathy Zhang, Economics
• Huseyin Gulen, Finance
• Ralph Siebert, Economics
• Zhan Pang, Management

College of Pharmacy

• Emily Dykhuizen, Medicinal Chem & Molecular Pharmacology
• Noll Campbell, Pharmacy Practice
• Sandro Matosevic, Industrial & Physical Pharmacy

Purdue Polytechnic Institute

• Anne Lucietto, School of Engineering Technology
• Byung-Cheol Min, Computer & Informational Technology
• Emad Elwakil, Construction Management Technology
• Jin-Ron Kocsis, Computer & Informational Technology
• Jorge Camba, Computer Graphics Technology
• Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar, Computer & Informational Technology
• Mary Johnson, Aviation and Transportation Technology
• Yingjie (Victor) Chen, Computer Graphics Technology

College of Science

• Adam Wasserman, Chemistry
• Aniket Kate, Computer Science
• Anindya Bhadra, Statistics
• Briony Horgan, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Christina Li, Chemistry
• Daniel Milisavljevic, Physics & Astronomy
• David Gleich, Computer Science
• Greg Michalski, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Leifu Chang, Biological Sciences
• Lin Tan, Computer Science
• Linquan Ma, Mathematics
• Lyudmila Slipchenko, Chemistry
• Petros Drineas, Computer Science
• Qi Zhou, Physics & Astronomy
• Qing Deng, Biological Sciences
• Rafael Lang, Physics & Astronomy
• Shelley Claridge, Chemistry
• Tongcang Li, Physics & Astronomy

School of Veterinary Medicine 

• Dianne Little, Basic Medical Sciences
• Marxa Figueiredo, Basic Medical Sciences
• Sandra Taylor, Veterinary Clinical Sciences