Vice Provost’s Award for Outstanding Graduate FACULTY Mentor

The Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars (OGSPS) solicits nominations each Spring semester from across Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus for the Vice Provost’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor. OGSPS will seek nominations through college assistant/associate deans for graduate education.  Nominees can be from any college but must be a current graduate faculty member on the West Lafayette campus.

Nominees must demonstrate sustained and significant contributions to graduate education at Purdue through activities such as:

• Well-structured relationships with students that lead to successful completion of master’s and doctoral degrees, including committee service, mentoring, funding, scholarly support and student advocacy
• Innovative graduate teaching
• Significant administration of graduate programs

The award recipient will be determined from college nominees by a committee composed of the graduate faculty (selected by OGSPS) and graduate students (selected by the president of the Purdue Graduate Student Government).

One award of $2,500 each will be awarded in 2026. 

Process

Nominating documents will be limited to 5 pages, exclusive of the CV and support letters, and include the following assembled in the order indicated below:

• A cover sheet with the nominee’s and nominator’s name and contact information;
• Three letters of support including one from the nominator who is currently affiliated with Purdue University (this could include a dean, department head, faculty member, or graduate student) and two from FORMER students (1 page each).
• Nominee’s reflection (written in first person) on involvement in various aspects of graduate education (1-2 pages); this section should be written by the nominee and include, but not be limited to, innovations in graduate mentoring and graduate administrative service;
• CV (include education; Purdue position; graduate courses taught; significant publications [indicate publications co-authored with graduate students by highlighting graduate student(s) name]);
• List of past masters and doctoral students for whom the nominee served as major professor and their current positions if available (1-2 pages);

Nomination process:

• Nominations should be forwarded to Lori Miller, mill2071@purdue.edu, by the assistant/associate dean for graduate education.
• The nomination process at the college level should include input from graduate faculty and graduate students.  Each college will select one nominee to forward to OGSPS as a finalist.
• The award recipient will be determined from college/school nominees by a committee composed of graduate faculty (selected by OGSPS) and two graduate students (selected by the president of the Purdue Graduate Student Government).

Deadline:

Nominations must be received by OGSPS by Friday, February 13, 2026.

Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor Criteria and Nomination Cover Page