UB recognized 54 faculty and staff members Thursday for accomplishments in research, teaching, mentoring and professional and workplace service.
Roughly 100 UB community members attended the 16th annual Celebration of Faculty and Staff Academic Excellence in Slee Hall. Interim Provost A. Scott Weber and President Satish Tripathi spoke at the beginning of the ceremony, congratulating faculty and staff receiving awards and acknowledging previous award recipients.
SUNY recognized five distinguished professors, civil, structural and environmental engineering professor Michel Bruneau, microbiology and immunology professor Anthony Campagnari, community health and health behavior professor Gary Giovino, law professor Errol Meidinger and chemistry professor John Richard. UB also recognized faculty members who have served for over 50 years. The ceremony included a performance from music professor John Bacon, who teaches percussion and coaches ensembles.
English professor David Schmid was one of the faculty awarded with the President Emeritus and Mrs. Meyerson Award, which recognizes “outstanding faculty mentorship.”
Students wrote on Schmid’s behalf, which he said “meant a lot to him.”
"We have relatively few ways of knowing for sure if we have made a difference,” Schmid said. “Ironically, I have to leave early today to meet with more students. That’s what I love to do.”
SUNY recognized 26-year UB physiology, biophysics and medicine professor Michael Duffey for his curriculum development in the graduate and medical schools.
Previous honorees were briefly recognized at the ceremony for their attendance and for supporting this year’s honorees.
Jim Atwood, a chemistry professor, was an honoree in 2013 for SUNY distinguished teaching for his roughly 35 years at UB.
“I feel that it is part of the duty to continue to recognize excellence, so I come out for that,” Atwood said. “After I won the award, I just kept doing what I was doing and helping students.”
SUNY recognized Erin O’Brien, assistant dean and chief enrollment and marketing officer for the School of Management, for her professional service and efforts as director of graduate programs.
“This award is so important because it recognizes how hard we work for our UB students and how much effort we put into making sure [students] have an excellent academic program [and] experience and it recognizes how much we really care,” O’Brien said.
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