University Awards
ADVANCE Faculty Fellows
ADVANCE Faculty Fellows partner with the ADVANCE-IT Team, providing recommendations and feedback about ADVANCE programming and resources, and promoting ADVANCE program efforts in their departments. We seek one faculty member from each department for a twelve-month term.
Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity
The Chancellor created the Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity in 2005 for faculty members from across campus who have, within the past three years, demonstrated outstanding achievement that has receives national and/or international recognition appropriate to the discipline. Each of the honorees receives a crystal award engraved with the Amherst campus seal at Convocation in the fall.
citationawards [at] umass [dot] edu (Chancellor's Citation Award)
The Chancellor’s Citation Award recognizes employees who have demonstrated outstanding performance in helping the university achieve its goals and objectives through original contributions to the university, attainment of high-priority university objectives, performance “beyond the call of duty” and/or achievement of significant improvements in productivity or savings in university operations.
Chancellor's Leadership Fellowship
The Chancellor's Leadership Fellowship seeks to cultivate future campus leaders by offering a half-time, one-year temporary appointment to an administrative area on campus and by providing shadowing and mentoring from the leaders of the host units. In addition, fellows are expected to launch a significant program during the fellowship year.
Civic Engagement and Service Learning Faculty Fellowship
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.
Creative Economy Fund Awards
The Creative Economy Fund Awards were established in 2007 to support faculty initiatives in the arts, humanities, and social sciences that benefit the State's economy and improve quality of life.
Distinguished Community Engagement Award for Research and Teaching
The Distinguished Community Engagement Awards for Research and Teaching recognize and encourage superlative individual achievement in outreach as an incentive to further community engagement on the part of the academic enterprise. In recognizing excellence in engaged scholarship, the University of Massachusetts Amherst joins other universities that demonstrate commitment to the social, geographic, economic, cultural, and environmental betterment of the communities they serve.
Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series/Chancellor's Medal
This lecture series celebrates the value of academic excellence and recognizes the distinguished achievements of faculty. Those chosen for the series also receive the Chancellor's Medal, the highest honor bestowed to faculty by the campus.
Distinguished Outreach Award
The Distinguished Outreach Award recognizes excellence in academic outreach, defined as teaching, research and service that benefit external constituencies. Outreach generates knowledge, shares resources, and applies the expertise of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in ways that advance the public good, consistent with university and unit missions.
Distinguished Professor
The title of Distinguished Professor may be awarded to full professors who have conducted outstanding research, teaching, and/or public service contributions that are widely recognized; an extraordinary level of productivity and impact in his/her field of study that goes well beyond the existing high expectations for full professors on campus; a level of productivity and impact that has been demonstrated for an extended period of time; pre-eminence in his/her field of study; recognition by professional organizations for outstanding contributions to the field (e.g., receipt of national awards); and other qualities exhibiting excellence.
Distinguished Teaching Award
Honoring individual excellence, the campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Award is highly competitive and prestigious. Only current students and alumni may nominate faculty for this award. Each year faculty, graduate, and undergraduate student committees review more than 100 nominations in a two-step process of data collection and analysis prior to selecting three faculty and two teaching assistant awardees. Recipients receive a monetary prize and are recognized at both the undergraduate and graduate commencements.
Faculty Success Fellows
The UMass Amherst Faculty Success Fellows program supports faculty participation in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) Faculty Success Program (FSP), a 12-week online program designed to help tenure-track and tenured faculty acquire skills to increase research and writing productivity while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. For our program, a group of Faculty Success Fellows is selected each year from a pool of applicants. Fellows receive funding to defray the costs of the NCFDD Faculty Success Program as well as mentorship, feedback, and support throughout the year.
Family Research Scholars
The Family Research Scholars program seeks to build lasting and productive connections among researchers of varying disciplines. Our hope is that each faculty member realizes the possibility and reality of a long-lasting career in family research. Since 2003, The Center for Research on Families has offered the groundbreaking Family Research Scholars Program, a year-long interdisciplinary faculty seminar that provides a carefully selected group of UMass Amherst faculty the opportunities for peer mentorship, and national expert consultation to prepare a large grant proposal in support of their research.
Interdisciplinary Studies Institute Fellowship
The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute provides a forum for discussion and engagement across the disciplines. Each year the focal point of our activity is a seminar organized around a specific topic. Faculty are invited to submit a proposal setting out their particular interests. Participating faculty fellows will receive a $1500 research allowance, and participating graduate student fellows will receive a $500 research allowance.
ISSR Scholars
ISSR Scholars participate in a year-long biweekly seminar that helps each of them develop a strong research grant proposal. In addition to attending in-depth sessions on grant writing and receiving valuable peer feedback on their proposals, ISSR Scholars are given unique opportunities to consult with nationally recognized experts about their proposals.
Lilly Teaching Fellowship
Tenure-track faculty selected by the Center for Teaching at UMass Amherst for their promise in teaching and research, their interest in undergraduate teaching and in developing innovative teaching skills, and their potential for making a positive impact on the teaching culture in their department, college and broader campus community.
Professional Improvement Leave Fellowship
Professional Improvement Leave Fellowships provide a one-semester release for select non-tenure track faculty who have achieved the rank of Senior Lecturer or above or have six or more years of full-time equivalent service in an Extension or Clinical title. Professional Improvement Leave Fellowships support professional improvement activities that directly relate to the faculty member’s job responsibilities and/or advance important initiatives for their department or college.
Public Engagement Faculty Fellowship
Faculty Fellows meet twice per month, attending panels and skill-building workshops offered by faculty, communication experts from University Relations, and others experienced with public engagement. Fellows also work in small groups and receive peer mentoring tailored to their engagement plan, and are given the opportunity to present their research to Massachusetts lawmakers.
Public Interest Technology (PIT) Faculty Fellowship
PIT Fellows from different colleges and schools across campus develop or retool undergraduate courses with a public interest technology focus. The PIT Fellows’ courses build curricula and content for PIT@ UMass and increase the number of courses relevant to a new all-campus certificate in Public Interest Technology being planned. PIT@ UMass partners with the UMass Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning to provide PIT Fellows support for course development during an intensive summer workshop.
Samuel F. Conti Research Fellowship
The Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Awards—$3,000 and a year's leave of absence—encourage award recipients to concentrate on activities related to graduate education, research, creative work and scholarly attainment. Selection of the awardees is based on demonstrably outstanding accomplishment and potential for continued excellence in research and scholarly or creative activity.
Spotlight Scholars
Spotlight Scholars are faculty who have demonstrated academic quality and leadership. Accomplishments include external grants, honors, or awards, innovations in teaching or research, collaboration with external partners, publication in a book or prestigious journal, appointment to a board, and other activities that demonstrate quality and leadership in research, scholarship, or creative activity.
STRIDE Faculty Fellowship
The STRIDE Faculty Fellowship provides UMass Amherst faculty with the opportunity to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in faculty recruitment. Through the fellows program, we wish to ensure that the STRIDE (Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence) Faculty Recruitment Workshops continue to be faculty centered and faculty driven, examining challenges of recruitment in different contexts.
Student-Centered Teaching and Learning (SCTL) Fellowship
The Student-Centered Teaching and Learning (SCTL) Fellowship provides faculty with structured support to redesign a course using evidence-based practices to improve student learning. Participants most value opportunities to engage in a community of colleagues from diverse disciplines and career stages, learning with and from each other.
Sustainability Curriculum Fellowship
The Sustainability Curriculum Fellowship (SCF) is a year-long interdisciplinary fellowship program. It was established in 2013 (as the Sustainability Curriculum Initiative) to enable UMass faculty to cultivate teaching excellence in sustainability. The SCF is supported by the Chancellor’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, School of Earth & Sustainability (SES), Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development (TEFD), and UMass Amherst Libraries. Over the past four years, faculty from across 25 departments have participated in the SCF.
Teaching for Inclusiveness, Diversity, and Equity (TIDE) Ambassador Fellowship
TIDE Ambassadors explore 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. The program acknowledges the potential of faculty functioning as catalysts for change through intensive professional development of faculty across disciplines and career stages.