Henry Russel Award

All of the nominations for faculty awards administered by Rackham are submitted directly through our website. This may require some changes in the way nominators put together the dossiers. Please read through this site before you begin the nomination process.

This award is conferred annually to recognize mid-career faculty who have demonstrated an impressive record of accomplishment in scholarship and/or creativity, as well as their conspicuous ability as a teacher. The Henry Russel Award is meant to acknowledge their accomplishments and encourage their potential for even more notable achievements in the future that benefit the University community. Nominees with the title of associate or assistant professor are eligible provided that they have been tenure track instructional faculty for not more than six years at the time of nomination.

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General Information

Eligibility

Nominees with the title of assistant professor or associate professor are eligible for this award, provided that they have been tenure track instructional faculty at the University of Michigan for not more than six years at the time of nomination. Departments and programs are encouraged to nominate women, minorities and members of other groups historically underrepresented in their disciplines.

Selection Criteria

This award is conferred annually to recognize mid-career faculty who have demonstrated an impressive record of accomplishment in research, scholarship and/or creativity, as well as their conspicuous ability as a teacher. The Henry Russel Award is meant to acknowledge their accomplishments and encourage their potential for even more notable achievements in the future that benefit the University community.

Number of Awards

One or more awards of $1,200 will be made annually.

Source of Nominations

Nominations may be submitted by deans, directors and department/program heads; by executive, promotion or award committees; or by individual faculty members and students. The nomination process should be coordinated through the appropriate academic unit (e.g., dean’s, departmental or program office).

Selection Process

Nominations are reviewed by a selection committee comprised of distinguished senior faculty from a range of schools and colleges. Awardees are selected by the Dean of Rackham Graduate School based upon the recommendations of this committee. The recipient(s) of the 2012 Henry Russel Award(s) will be selected in April 2012 and the results of the competition announced shortly thereafter. The award(s) will be presented formally on the occasion of the Henry Russel Lecture in March 2012.

Deadline and Submission

The nomination deadline for 2011 Henry Russel Awards is March 26, 2012 12PM/noon EDT.

For more information contact:

Pat McCune, Ph.D.
Senior Program Manager
915 East Washington Street
1130 Rackham
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1070
Telephone: (734) 936-1647
E-mail: faculty-awards@umich.edu

Guidelines for the Preparation of Nominations

The complete instructions for submitting a nomination for this award, and the FAQ for the general process of submitting nominations online, are available here as well as on the separate nomination website.

Listed below are the eight items that must be included in the dossier before the nomination can be submitted. You will be asked to either enter text into text boxes or online forms, or upload documents in Adobe PDF format.

Before you begin, please read the section about requesting and submitting letters of support below. These letters should not be sent to you but rather submitted directly by the letter writer electronically through a separate website.

A nomination dossier can be set up by a U-M faculty or staff member. Up to six others may be given access to the site by the person who opens the dossier on the website. After a nomination dossier is started the nominator(s) and assistant(s) may login to the faculty awards nomination system as many times as needed in order to complete the nomination.

Contact Information Form

Provide in the online form all the contact information requested for both the nominee and the nominator—not the administrative contact.

Letter of Nomination

You may submit your nomination letter by uploading the document in Adobe PDF format. Or, if you would prefer to use the text box, we recommend that you write your statement in a non-web format (such as a word processing or text editor program), save a copy for your personal records, and then copy and paste the final document into the space provided.

The nomination letter may be no longer than five pages (3,400 words) in length.

The letter of nomination should be prepared by the nominee’s department/program chair or designate, or by a senior member of the faculty who knows the nominee’s work well. If the nomination is being submitted by a department or program other than the one in which the nominee has his/her major appointment, the head of that department should also sign the letter.

Remember that the committee members represent a range of disciplines and may not be familiar with your nominee’s field. Committee members often find the following information helpful as they try to evaluate nominees from very different disciplines.

  • A description of the nominee’s major research, scholarly or creative activities in progress and an indication of their overall significance to the discipline.
  • A concise assessment of the nominee’s scholarly and/or creative ability and professional reputation, including a sense of how the nominee might rank nationally and, where appropriate, internationally among senior scholars in the discipline.
  • An evaluation of the nominee’s contributions as a teacher and mentor of students. This section of the nomination should contain information on:
    • Courses taught at the University of Michigan;
    • Development of new courses or revitalization of existing ones;
    • Significance of the nominee’s course offerings to the discipline;
    • Strength of the nominee’s advising and mentoring skills;
    • Awards and honors received in recognition of teaching, advising, and mentoring.
  • An brief description of the nominee’s service contributions. This may include committee assignments, counseling duties, formal and informal advisory roles, and any other activities that reflect outstanding service to department, school/college, institution, community, and professional organizations and societies.

Letters of Support

Note: Do not have the letters of support sent to you. These letters must be submitted by the writers directly to the nomination dossier through a separate website. Writers will be asked to either enter text into an online form, or upload documents in Adobe PDF format.

When you contact the letter writer with your request, direct the him/her to https://secure.rackham.umich.edu/Faculty/support/ and provide the writer with the U-M ID of the nominee and name of the award. On this website the writers will find straightforward directions for submitting the letter of support for your nominee.

Once the letters have been sent into the website you will be able to read them in the nomination dossier and then select which letters you actually want to include when you submit the nomination. Only the letters you have selected will be seen by the review committee.

Nominations should include up to six letters in support of the nominee. Additional letters will not be considered. Three of the letters must come from outside the University. These letters may come from faculty members within the nominee’s department or program or from elsewhere in the University; from faculty at other institutions in the U.S. or abroad; and from former students of the nominee.

Each letter of support may be no longer than five pages (3,400 words) in length.

Complete and Current Curriculum Vitae

Include the nominee’s c.v. by uploading the most recent version in Adobe PDF format. Note: while information about courses taught and dissertation service may be in the c.v., providing that same information by completing the forms below is necessary because it facilitates the review process.

Courses Form

Complete the online form by providing in the text boxes the following information for all courses, undergraduate and graduate, taught during the past eight terms: course number, course name, approximate number of students enrolled, term and year taught.

If your school/college represents course information in another format you will be able to describe this in a separate text box.

Doctoral Committee Service Form

Complete the online form by providing in the text box the following information for all doctoral committee service in the past five years: name of student, student’s department/program, year the degree was conferred or is expected, role served by the nominee, and placement information for the student, if available.

Teaching Evaluations (optional)

Please indicate the courses for which you would like us to request your nominee’s evaluation reports from The Office of Evaluations and Examinations. That office will send the summary reports on student evaluations directly to us in a digital file. This file will then be uploaded to the dossier.

If your school/college uses another mode of evaluation, please contact us to determine how your nominee’s evaluations can be submitted.

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Recipients of the Henry Russel Award

2012

  • Lada Adamic, College of Information, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
  • Aaron Pierce, Physics
  • Haoxing Xu, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology

2011

  • Anthony Grbic, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
  • David Harding, Sociology
  • Anna Michalak, Civil & Environmental Engineering

2010

  • Cindy Lustig, Psychology
  • Patricia Wittkopp, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

2009

  • Luming Duan, Physics
  • Anna Grzymala-Busse, Political Science
  • Laura Kasischke, English Language & Literature

2008

  • Edwin Bergin, Astronomy
  • Jason Owen-Smith, Sociology, Organizational Studies

2007

  • Anne Curzan, English Language & Literature, Education
  • Jerome Lynch, Civil and Environmental Engineering

2006

  • Amy Porter, Wind and Percussion
  • Dennis Sylvester, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

2005

  • David T. Blaauw, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  • Anna Stefanopoulou, Mechanical Engineering

2004

  • Todd Austin, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  • Brian Conrad, Mathematics
  • Lorna Goodison, English Language & Literature

2003

  • William V. Giannobile, Periodontics/Prevention & Geriatrics
  • Scott J. Hollister, Biomedical Engineering, Surgery and Mechanical Engineering
  • Denise Kirschner, Microbiology & Immunology
  • John V. Moran, Human Genetics
  • Michael J. Solomon, Chemical Engineering

2002

  • Clark T. C. Nguyen, EECS
  • Yoichi Osawa, Pharmacology
  • Johanna H. Prins, English Language & Literature

2001

  • Lisa Curran, Biology/Natural Resources

2000

  • Jeffrey Fessler, EECS
  • Webb Keane, Anthropology

1999

  • Thomas Hales, Mathematics
  • Aalexander Ninfa, Biological Chemistry
  • Ann Marie Sastry, Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics

1998

  • Susan Alcock, Classical Art & Archaeology/Classical Studies
  • Trevor Wooley, Mathematics

1997

  • Carla Sinopoli, Anthropology
  • Kamal Sarabandi, EECS

1996

  • Celeste A. Brusati, History of Art
  • Dante A. Amidei, Physics

1995

  • H. Brinkley Messick, Anthropology
  • Khalil Najafi, EECS

1994

  • Stephen Lee, Chemistry

1993

  • Jessy W. Grizzle, EECS
  • John C. Mitani, Anthropology

1992

  • James M. Wilson, Internal Medicine

1991

  • David Srolovitz, Materials Science

1990

  • Alice Fulton, English Language & Literature
  • Philip Hanlon, Mathematics

1989

  • Susan Gelman, Psychology

1988

  • Thomas P. Beresford, Psychiatry
  • Thomas E. Crow, History of Art

1987

  • Nancy Cantor, Psychology
  • Jennifer A. Kitchell, Geology
  • Barbara Boardman Smuts, Psychology

1986

  • Richard I. Arculus, Geological Sciences

1985

  • Noburu Kikuchi, Mechanical Engineering
  • Donald Kinder, Political Science

1984

  • Daniel C. Fisher, Geological Sciences

1983

  • Peter A. Railton, Philosophy

1982

  • Daniel M. Burns, Jr., Mathematics
  • John T. Lehman, Biology

1981

  • Gayl A. Jones, English Language & Literature

1980

  • Philip D. Gingerich, Geological Sciences
  • Robert P. Kirshner, Physics

1979

  • Joyce P. Marcus, Anthropology

1978

  • Charles F. Yocum, Biology

1977

  • William E. Bolcom, Music

1976

  • Rob Van der Voo, Geological Sciences

1975

  • Hugh L. Montgomery, Mathematics

1974

  • Bernard Q. Nietschmann, Geography

1973

  • John J. Voorhees, Dermatology

1972

  • Kent V. Flannery, Anthropology

1971

  • Lewis J. Kleinsmith, Biology

1970

  • Jeremiah G. Turcotte, Surgery

1969

  • William W. Freehling, History

1968

  • Arthur J. Vander, Physiology

1967

  • Theodore V. Buttrey, Classical Studies

1966

  • William P. Malm, Music

1965

  • Anthony J. Pennington, Electrical Engineering

1964

  • John M. DeNoyer, Geology

1963

  • George D. Zuidema, Surgery

1962

  • John R. G. Gosling, Obstetrics & Gynecology

1961

  • Lawrence B. Slobodkin, Zoology

1960

  • William L. Hays, Psychology

1959

  • William R. Dawson, Biology

1958

  • Oleg Grabar, History of Art

1957

  • Elman R. Service, Anthropology

1956

  • Donald R. Pearce, English Language & Literature

1955

  • Donald Arthur Glaser, Physics

1954

  • John W. Hall, History

1953

  • Edwin E. Moise, Mathematics

1952

  • Henry J. Gomberg, Electrical Engineering

1951

  • Ernst Pulgram, Romance Languages

1950

  • Chris J. D. Zarafonetis, Internal Medicine

1949

  • Richard C. Boys, English Language & Literature

1948

  • Robert M. Thrall, Mathematics

1947

  • Burton L. Baker, Anatomy

1946

  • Robert R. White, Chemical Engineering

1945

  • William B. Willcox, History

1944

  • Frederick K. Sparrow, Jr., Botany

1943

  • Carl A. Moyer, Surgery

1942

  • Richard H. Freyberg, Internal Medicine

1941

  • Herbert C. Youtie, Classical Studies

1940

  • Edgard M. Hoover, Jr., Economics
  • Frank H. Bethell, Internal Medicine

1939

  • Norman R. F. Maier, Psychology

1938

  • Franklin D. Johnston, Internal Medicine

1937

  • Frank E. Eggleton, Zoology

1936

  • Lawrence Preuss, Political Science

1935

  • Ralph Grafton Smith, Public Health

1934

  • Paul Mueschke, English Language & Literature

1933

  • Werner E. Bachmann, Chemistry

1932

  • William L. Ayres, Mathematics

1931

  • Earl L. Griggs, English Langauge & Literature

1930

  • Carl L. Hubbs, Zoology

1929

  • John Alexander, Surgery

1928

  • Laurence M. Gould, Geology

1927

  • Albert Hyma, History

1926

  • Carter L. Goodrich, Economics