Annually, the University recognizes outstanding faculty as Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors. Candidates must excel in all three areas of research, teaching, and public engagement. This award includes a $2,500 one-year stipend to be used by each recipient to further their professional activities.

Nomination process

All individuals for this distinction must be nominated by one (or more) faculty or administrator via a single nomination letter. The Selection Committee requests that previous nominations be updated each year, ensuring documentation and materials are current and accurate. Self-nominations are not accepted.

Please note, we have revised our nomination process to two phases, where external letters are not requested in the initial nomination. The committee will review the materials of initial phase nominees and invite a select group to advance as finalists, at which point external letters will be requested.

Phase 1 nominations:

1. A cover letter with a brief overview of the candidate’s qualifications for the award.
2. A three-page Summary of Qualifications.  This summary must dedicate one page to discussion of the nominee’s research/creative endeavors, one page to teaching, and one page to public engagement and service activities.  Any nominations not in compliance with this format will be returned to the nominator(s) for revision.
   • To assist in preparing your nomination, the Selection Committee’s criteria are described in the Selection Criteria section of this page. To assist the committee in their review of nominations, please follow the criteria specified in each of the three areas.
3. An updated CV that includes all publications and creative endeavors. Citations for journal articles, books, and other publications should include all authors, full titles, and applicable page numbers. For creative works such as exhibitions, curated exhibitions, performances, and musical compositions, date and venue should be included.

Please send your complete set of first-round nomination materials, as one complete PDF file, to provost@uconn.edu.  The nomination packet should be single spaced, formatted for standard (8.5” x 11”) paper with one-inch margins on all sides, and Times New Roman 12 font. In the newly adopted two-phase process of nominations, first-phase nomination materials should not include any letters of recommendation. Any submissions containing such materials in the first-round submission will be returned so that the letters can be removed. This ensures that all first-round evaluations are made on the basis of the same set of materials for each candidate. The Office of the Provost will acquire Student Evaluations of Teaching data from the past seven years for all applicants.

Dossiers sent with multiple files will be returned for resubmission in the correct format as a PDF.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact provost@uconn.edu.

Deadline: Nominations are due to provost@uconn.edu by 5:00 p.m. on January 11, 2023. 

Phase 2 finalists:

Candidates selected as finalists will be notified by TBD, of the need to solicit reference letters. The deadline for these letters and any other materials requested by the selection committee for this pool of finalists will be TBD.

Finalists will be asked to submit letters of reference from up to six referees. Normally, no more than two referees should be from close colleagues, collaborators or former students. At least one of the individuals should be qualified to focus on formal teaching and may be an internal UConn reference. The remaining referees should be individuals external to the University, who have a national/international reputation and are familiar with the nominee’s work. No more than six letters will be incorporated into the review file.  Please note that the Committee reserves the right to request additional letters from UConn faculty, department heads, or deans to assist with their deliberations.

Updated: October 4, 2021