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Research & Economic Development

Scholar-Mentor Award

  • Procedures

    Tennessee Technological University 

    Tennessee Tech University’s Scholar-Mentor Award honors a faculty member who displays outstanding mentorship, integrating scholarship, research and teaching excellence.

    Criteria for Nomination
    Criteria to be considered for nomination for the Scholar-Mentor Award are outstanding accomplishments in mentoring, scholarship, research and teaching while a member of the Tennessee Tech University faculty.

    Excellence can be demonstrated in many ways: publications and presentations; performances and exhibitions; music scores, recordings and curatorial activities; citations of one's work by others; evaluations by students, peers, journal editors, referees; internal and external grants awarded; professional/alumni recognition. 

    Nominees must be current full-time members of the Tennessee Tech faculty.  A faculty member who has won the award shall be ineligible for the same award again. 

    Nominations
    Nominations must cite evidence that the candidate's mentoring relationships are highly regarded and that his or her scholarship activities are conducive to student involvement and success. Evidence of mentorship could be provided through letters, testimonials and/or results and outcomes. Nomination forms can be found at the link below. Only one completed form is required to place a candidate's name in nomination, which should be made by someone other than the candidate.  A faculty member who has won the award shall be ineligible for the same award again.  Completed nomination forms should be submitted to Research & Economic Development (Room 155 in Derryberry Hall) or by emailing to the committee support person, Bethany Jones, at bjjones@tntech.edu. Please see the due date listed on the Timeline tab, late submissions will not be accepted.

    Letters of Recommendation
    The nominee shall request a letter of recommendation from two faculty members (at least one current Tennessee Tech faculty member) and three current or former Tennessee Tech students.  The letters should be submitted as part of the requested background materials. 

    Materials Requested from Nominees
    Nominees will be asked to provide the following materials:

    • current academic profile, including courses taught and enrollment in each course, research/creative activities, teaching schedule, and advising responsibilities (limit to no more than the previous seven (7) years of work carried out at Tennessee Tech)
    • statement of mentoring philosophy (limit to 500 words)
    • documentation of success in teaching and scholarship that can include, but is not limited to:
    1. evidence of mentoring relationships with students and/or faculty, describing how the nominee has guided, encouraged and challenged students and/or faculty to attain their goals beyond the more routine tasks of advising and supervision
    2. student IDEA evaluations, if applicable (limit to the most recent four (4) semesters of instruction)
    3. publications co-authored by student(s) and the nominee (highlight the names of students in co-authored papers and provide citations of publications with students)
    4. presentations given by student(s) and the nominee
    5. involvement in Tennessee Tech's Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Program
    6. past or current involvement in Student Research Day projects
    • a letter of recommendation from two faculty members (at least one current Tennessee Tech faculty member) and three current or former Tennessee Tech students. The letters should be submitted as part of the requested background materials.

    Mentoring philosophy should not exceed 500 words.  Limit the number of pages of materials submitted to 15 pages maximum, including mentoring philosophy.  Letters of recommendation as well as the IDEA evaluations will be excluded from the page count. The winner will be invited to attend the Faculty Awards Recognition Reception.

    Nomination Carryover 

    In order to be reconsidered the next year without having to be renominated, the nominee will be required to update their materials, excluding letters of recommendations.  After the second year, consideration will be given to an individual only if re-nominated.

    Award Selection Procedures

    In reviewing the nominee's materials, the Committee will carefully look for adherence to guidelines.  All materials submitted that do not follow the criteria outlined in the procedures will be ineligible for consideration. 

     

  • Forms

    Nomination FormBackground Form

    Please note: form accessibility may vary from browser to browser and among different operating systems. Follow the steps below to save the forms and submit them to Research & Economic Development. For form accessibility issues or troubleshooting, please contact Bethany Jones at extension 3901 or bjjones@tntech.edu.


    1. Click the link for the form. If the form opens in your browser, choose the "Download" icon in the top right portion of your screen and save it as a file on your computer (Note: if you begin typing in the form from your browser, the information will not be saved. You must save the file to your computer). If the form downloads instead of opening in the browser, double-click the name and open it. Save the file from there to a location on your computer.

    2. Open the form in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Acrobat (Note: varying versions of Reader may yield different results. If you have issues, please contact your ITS support person to ensure that you have the most up-to-date Reader).

    3. Fill in the form.

    4. After completing the form, choose File>Save As from the Adobe Acrobat Reader menu and save the file using a new name in a location you will be able to access later (Desktop, My Documents, etc.).

    5. Close the form.

    6. Create a new mail message and attach the recently saved file to the message. Submit the form to research@tntech.edu

    Note: if none of these steps work on your computer, please contact your ITS support person or print the file, hand-write your responses, and return it to Derryberry Hall, Room 155.


     

    Tennessee Technological University, a public institution of higher education created by the laws of the State of Tennessee, is located at 1 William L. Jones Drive, Cookeville, TN 38505 (931-372-3101).  Tennessee Tech collects the information you provide to it through its website’s portals, request for information forms, etc. for the purpose fulfilling its mission as required by Tennessee Code Annotated Section 49-8-101(d).  Tennessee Tech may share the information you provide with contractors and state or federal authorities if required by law or if necessary to fulfill its stated mission.

    Tennessee Tech will store your personal data consistent with its policy on document retention, which can be accessed through the Policy Central portal on this website.  If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and have standing under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016, you have the right (i) to request from Tennessee Tech access to and rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing; (ii) to object to processing; (iii) to data portability and (iv) to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in the EEA.

    By providing personal data to Tennessee Tech, you consent to the processing of your data for the purposes described above.

  • Committee Members

    2023-2024 Members

    Committee Member Department/College Campus Box No.  Campus Phone Tennessee Tech Email Address
    Dr. Chris Wilson Mechanical Engineering/College of Engineering 5014 3216 chriswilson@tntech.edu
    Dr. Lynette Harvey School of Nursing 5001 6807 lharvey@tntech.edu
    Dr. Brian Carver Biology/College of Arts and Sciences 5063 3127 bcarver@tntech.edu
    Dr. Greg Danner Music/College of Fine Arts 5045 6180 gdanner@tntech.edu
    Dr. Samantha Hutson Agriculture/College of Ag & Human Ecology 5035 3865 shutson@tntech.edu
    Dr. Kyle Turner Decision Sciences and Management/College of Business 5022   kturner@tntech.edu
    Dr. Stephanie Kazanas Counseling and Psychology/College of Education 5031 3560 skazanas@tntech.edu
    Committee Chair Dr. Steve Sharp Environmental Studies/College of Interdisciplinary Studies 5176 3187 ssharp@tntech.edu
    OTHERS        
    Dr. John Liu, Executive Officer Research and Economic Development 5036 3897 johnliu@tntech.edu
    Bethany Jones Office of Research & Economic Development 5164 3901 bjjones@tntech.edu

  • Timeline

    2023-24 Schedule of Activities

    Activity Date
    Initial Committee Meeting Monday, November 6, 2023
    Notice and email reminders to Deans and Chairs Monday, September 25, 2023
    Notice to Carryover Nominees Monday, September 25, 2023
    Request for Nominations Announced in Tech Times (various times) October 30 – November 16, 2023
    Nominations Due in the Office of Research Friday, November 17, 2023
    Deadline for Nominee Notification Monday, November 20, 2023
    Nominee Background Form, Supporting Materials & Letters Due in Office of Research Tuesday, January 16, 2024
    Distribute Nominee Materials to Committee Friday, January 21, 2024
    Committee to Have Rankings Back to Research Office Personnel Monday, February 19, 2024
    Committee Meeting to Select Recipient [TBD] March 5-9, 2024 [Select Date]
    Committee Recommendation to President Oldham Monday, March 12, 2024
    Notification to Nominees on Recipient Selected Monday, March 19, 2024
    Notification to Award Recipients Dean, Chair, Provost, VP & Associate VP Research Monday, March 19, 2024
    Committee to Have Awards Script to Research Office Personnel for Provost Office Monday, March 26, 2024
    Presentation of Award at Faculty Awards Recognition Reception TBD
    Announcement of Award Recipient in Tech Times After the Awards Reception

  • Previous Winners

    2022-2023, Dr. Steven Anton, Department of Mechanical Engineering
    2021-2022, Dr. Pedro Arce, Department of Chemical Engineering
    2020-2021, Dr. Indranil Bhattacharya, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
    2019-20, Dr. Kristen Deiter, Department of English, and Dr. Jennifer Meadows, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
    2018-2019, Dr. George Chitiyo, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Dr. Jesse Carrick, Department of Chemistry
    2017-2018, Dr. Holly Stretz, Department of Chemical Engineering
    2016-2017, Dr. Edward Lisic, Department of Chemistry
    2015-2016, Dr. Jiahong Zhu, Department of Mechanical Engineering
    2014-2015, Dr. Jeffery Boles, Department of Chemistry

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