Awards & Recognition

American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows 

AAAS Fellows are a distinguished cadre of scientists, engineers, and innovators who have been recognized for their achievements across disciplines, from research, teaching, and technology to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public. 

Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program 

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers 400+ unique awards for U.S. citizens to teach, research, and conduct professional projects in 130+ countries. At UMass Amherst, the Fulbright Scholars are supported by a collaboration between the International Programs Office, the Office of Research & Engagement, and the Office of Faculty Development. 

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship 

Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.  

MacArthur Fellowship 

The MacArthur Fellowship is a no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential. 

National Endowment for the Humanities 

Because democracy demands wisdom, NEH serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans. The Endowment accomplishes this mission by awarding grants for top-rated proposals.  

National Academies 

Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Election to National Academy of Engineering is one of the highest professional honors accorded to an engineer. 

Provost Professor

This title is bestowed by the Provost's Office to recognize exceptional achievement in research or creative activity, and in teaching. 

Distinguished & Endowed Professorships

Distinguished and endowed professorships are awarded by the Board of Trustees to full professors at UMass Amherst for outstanding national or international contributions in research, teaching, and/or public service. 

Roy J. Zuckerberg Endowed Leadership Award 

This award is run out of the UMass Office of the President to reward leaders of courage, conviction, and selflessness who have devoted their time and talent to helping the University of Massachusetts to accomplish its goals.  

UMass ADVANCE Equitable Practices in Collaboration (EPiC) Award 

This award, given by UMass ADVANCE, recognizes promising practices in shared decision-making and equitable group processes. 

Faculty Women of Color in the Academy travel award 

This travel award supports women faculty of color to attend the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference and is jointly supported by the Office of the Provost, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, and the Graduate School. 

Commitment to Diversity—Graduate Faculty Award 

Commitment to Diversity—Graduate Faculty Award, annually recognizes one faculty member for their outstanding contributions to diversity and inclusion within the UMass Amherst graduate student body. 

Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA) 

The Distinguished Teaching Award honors exemplary teaching at the highest institutional level. Coordinated by the Center for Teaching & Learning. 

Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching 

The Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching honors one outstanding faculty member from each of the five campuses of the University of Massachusetts. Amherst campus support coordinated through the Center for Teaching & Learning. 

College Outstanding Teaching Award (COTA) 

The College Outstanding Teaching Award (COTA) recognizes excellence in teaching and honors individual faculty members at each of the university’s schools/colleges for their instructional accomplishments. The COTA program is administered by the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) and the individual schools and colleges. 

Community-Engaged Teaching Award 

Recognizes a faculty member or librarian for a record of community-engaged teaching with demonstrated engagement and impact in the community and benefits to learners at UMass Amherst. 

Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award

The Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award is bestowed by the Graduate School to recognize faculty members for the indispensable work they perform in guiding graduate students to academic and professional success.

ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentor Awards

This award recognizes the vital role faculty play in mentoring their colleagues. The awards are administered by UMass ADVANCE in conjunction with the individual schools and colleges. 

Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series & Chancellor’s Medal 

The lecture series honors individual faculty members and their achievements and celebrates the values of academic excellence that we share as a community. Each honoree is presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed upon faculty by the campus. 

Community-Engaged Research Award

Recognizes a faculty member or librarian for a record of community-engaged research, scholarship, and creative activities, in all disciplines and fields, which contributes to their community partner organizations, UMass Amherst, the academy, and communities at large. 

Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creativity  

Honors nationally acclaimed faculty members for accomplishments in research and creative activity.  

Distinguished Community Engagement Awards

Awarded annually, the Distinguished Community Engagement Awards for Research, Teaching, Service, and Community Partners recognize individuals within our campus community as well as community partner organizations for their outstanding contributions to community-engaged research, teaching, service, and campus/community partnerships, with impacts at the local, regional, national, or international level. 

Community-Engaged Service Award

Recognizes a faculty member or librarian for a record of community-engaged service that demonstrates engagement and impact in the community and benefit to UMass Amherst. 

UMass Amherst Spotlight Scholars

The UMass Amherst Spotlight Scholars initiative shines a light on faculty working for positive social change through research, scholarship, and creative activity. 

Chancellor’s Leadership Fellowship

The Chancellor’s Leadership Fellowship (CLF) program, administered by the Office of Faculty Development, seeks to cultivate future campus leaders by offering a half-time, one-year temporary appointment to an administrative area on campus, and providing mentoring from the leaders of the host unit. 

HERS Leadership Institute

HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) is a leadership development and research organization that is dedicated to creating and sustaining a diverse network of women-identified leaders in higher education. Participants are nominated by their dean and selected by the provost. UMass participation is coordinated by the Office of Faculty Development.  

Building Academic Leaders in the Humanities

An intensive training and support for emergent and established leaders in the humanities. Funded through the Mellon Foundation "Building Academic Leaders in the Humanities" grant awarded to Five Colleges, Inc.

Healthy Relationships at Work Fellowship

The HRW Fellowship is a six-part workshop, coaching, and mentoring experience that helps department heads and chairs improve departmental relationships. 

STRIDE Faculty Fellowship Program 

The STRIDE Faculty Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Equity and Inclusion, provides UMass Amherst faculty with the opportunity to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in faculty recruitment. 

STRIPE Faculty Fellows 

STRIPE (Strategies and Tactics for Retention through Inclusive Promotion Evaluation) Faculty Fellows support the STRIPE Training Program by providing UMass Amherst personnel committees with the opportunity to learn strategies to minimize bias to support inclusion and inclusivity in faculty promotion and tenure cases. STRIPE is supported by UMass Faculty Diversity, in collaboration with the Office of Faculty Development and the Academic Personnel Office. 

ADVANCE Team Leaders 

Team Leaders for Research and Practice work together, with the entire ADVANCE Leadership Team, faculty, and campus stakeholders to provide knowledge-driven research and solutions for faculty equity. Team leaders for Practice are faculty members committed to working on practical solutions for faculty collaboration and equity built on ADVANCE research. Team Leaders for Research are social science researchers who conduct studies of faculty equity on our campus. The call for nominations, including self-nominations, is made annually at the end of the academic year for the following academic year. 

Third Spaces Facilitators

Facilitators for the Faculty Diversity Writing Program embrace the idea of “third spaces” as a means of cultivating physical, mental, and institutional space to discuss shared challenges and aspirations, and to advance our professional and personal goals. 

ADVANCE Faculty Fellows 

A UMass ADVANCE Faculty Fellowship provides faculty members/librarians with a unique opportunity to participate in ADVANCE’s program of institutional transformation by interfacing between the ADVANCE Leadership Team and their departments. The call for nominations, including self-nominations, is made at the end of the academic year for the following academic year. 

Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence

The Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, facilitated by the Center for Teaching & Learning, enables promising early-career faculty to cultivate teaching skills and leadership in a special yearlong collaboration. 

TIDE (Teaching for Inclusiveness, Diversity, and Equity) Ambassadors Fellowship

TIDE Ambassadors, facilitated by the Center for Teaching & Learning, explore in their own teaching and, in individual leadership projects, how they can enhance students’ learning and academic success across cultural, social, and learning differences by adopting a strength-based, inclusive, and equitable approach to teaching and learning grounded in the value of diversity. 

Civic Engagement & Service-Learning (CESL) Faculty Fellows Program

The Civic Engagement and Service-Learning Faculty Fellowship is for faculty who would like to develop new learning opportunities for their students in collaboration with off-campus community partners. This fellowship is run by CESL.  

Sustainability Curriculum Fellowship (SCF) 

The Sustainability Curriculum Fellowship (SCF) is a year-long interdisciplinary fellowship program enabling UMass faculty to cultivate teaching excellence in sustainability. The SCF is supported by the Chancellor’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, School of Earth & Sustainability (SES), the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), and UMass Amherst Libraries. 

iCons Teaching Fellowship 

The iCons Teaching Fellowship brings new talented and motivated instructors into the Integrated Concentration in STEM (iCons) Program. 

Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Award  

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship honors tenured professors with a unique opportunity to focus on their research or creative activities. Fellowships are managed by the office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement (VCRE). 

OFD Scholars

Scholars engage with a semester-long series of interactive writing workshops and peer feedback sessions around an annual theme.  

Mid-Career Post-Tenure Fellowship

This bargained, competitively awarded fellowship provides a research-intensive semester to Associate Professors whose service and teaching responsibilities have exceeded the norm. 

OFD Scholarly Writing Fellows

Scholarly Writing Fellows facilitate writing circles comprised of faculty and librarians from across campus to develop sustainable writing practices by carving out regular time to meet their writing goals. 

Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) Faculty Fellows

Fellows from across campus meet in semi-weekly seminars on an annual theme to present their research and receive feedback from their peers.  

Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) Scholars Program

The Institute for Social Science Research Scholars Program supports grant writing for social science faculty from across the university to build new directions in their research programs. 

Family Research Scholars (FRS) Program

The Family Research Scholars Program, run by the Center for Research on Families, mentors faculty through a year-long grant writing process and creates lasting interdisciplinary family research connections. 

Business Innovation Fellows Program 

Business Innovation Fellows act as a catalyst within IALS and the local community, facilitating the commercialization of research by collaborating with founders to de-risk and add value from “concept to commercialization” and “idea to Series A.” 

PIT@UMass Faculty Fellowship 

Public Interest Technology (PIT) focuses on the development and realization of socially responsible solutions to the challenges of a technology-driven world. The PIT Faculty Fellowship focuses on building interdisciplinary research that explores PIT questions and solutions. 

Public Engagement Project (PEP) Fellowship Program

The PEP Fellowship provides training for faculty interested in sharing  their research with audiences beyond the academy, including writing  effective op-eds or policy briefs, testifying before Congress, and engaging with community and professional groups.  

Professional Development Fellowship

For non-tenure track faculty, Professional Development Fellowships support professional development activities that directly relate to the job responsibilities and/or advance important initiatives for their department or college. 

Faculty Success Fellows Program

The UMass Amherst Faculty Success Fellows program supports faculty participation in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) Faculty Success Program (FSP). This Fellows program is run out of the office of the Senior Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion. 

OFD Senior Fellows & Associate Directors

The Senior Fellows & Associate Directors of Faculty Development contribute to positive institutional change through faculty development programming and internal research.