Faculty Researcher Award

Purpose: This award acknowledges and celebrates a faculty member recognized for their clinical and/or bench research, which contributes to the advancement of medicine, demonstrates collaboration and mentoring of learners (medical students, residents/fellows, and/or graduate learners) and faculty, and enhances the research reputation of the UMKC School of Medicine.

Award Description

The faculty recipient should be an individual who has:

• Made significant contributions to medical literature through research, including peer-reviewed publications and presentations
• Obtained grant funding
• Sustained record of collaborating and mentoring learners and faculty in research

Eligibility

• Must be a tenure-track or non-tenure-track faculty member in the UMKC School of Medicine for a minimum of five years
• Must have received grant funding as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator, OR
• Consistently contributed as co-investigator on funded research

Who Can Nominate

• UMKC staff, faculty, students, residents/fellows, administrators, clinical affiliates, or community members
• Self-nominations are acceptable

Prior Winners

• 2025 – Nihar R. Nayak, DVM, Ph.D.
• 2024 – Jennifer Schuster, M.D.
• 2023 – Stephen D. Simon, Ph.D.
• 2022 – Peter Koulen, Ph.D., FARVO
• 2021 – John Spertus, M.D., M.P.H.
• 2020 – John Q. Wang, Ph.D.

Nomination Materials Required

1. Nomination Letter(s) including narrative of how the individual's clinical or bench research has impacted UMKC, with specific outcome measures from the last five years:
   • Number of peer-reviewed PMID publications and journal names
   • Number of presentations (invited and peer-reviewed) at regional, national, and international academic meetings
   • Number and type of grants (note if grants are UMKC SoM), amount of funding, and role in each project
   • Number of learners and faculty members the nominee has collaborated and mentored in research
   • Number of learners and faculty who have obtained peer-reviewed PMID publications and presentations at academic meetings (regional, national, international) in past five years
   • Research innovations, patents, or other contributions to research
2. Supporting Letters – Three letters of support from learners and faculty describing the nominee's mentorship and collaboration in clinical or bench research
3. Curriculum Vitae – Most recent CV from the nominee
4. Checklist – Download and complete the checklist provided, which should be submitted as the first page of a single PDF nomination

Nomination Constraints

• A nominator may only nominate one nominee