University of Nebraska System President Ted Carter on Wednesday announced the 2023 recipients of NU’s most prestigious faculty awards for teaching, research, engagement and commercialization.
The system-wide President’s Excellence Awards honor faculty whose work has had a significant impact on students, the university and the state.
“Faculty are at the heart of any great university. We’re fortunate to have some of the world’s best serving across the University of Nebraska System,” Carter said. “The teaching, research and engagement that these faculty do every day has a transformational impact on students, our communities and economic growth and well-being. I congratulate our faculty award recipients on this well-deserved honor and thank them for all they do to change lives in Nebraska and around the world.”
Award recipients are selected by a system-wide committee of faculty members and, in the case of the engagement award, community members. Recipients each receive a $10,000 stipend. They will be honored at the Aug. 17 Board of Regents meeting.
UNMC recipients of the 2023 President’s Excellence Awards are:
Teaching
Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award (OTICA): Recognizes individual faculty members who have demonstrated meritorious and sustained records of excellence and creativity in teaching.
Geoffrey Talmon, MD, professor and vice chair for medical education in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology and associate dean for medical education in the UNMC College of Medicine. Dr. Talmon completed medical school and residency in pathology at UNMC, a fellowship in surgical pathology at the Mayo Clinic and received a Master of Education from Johns Hopkins University. He was the first James Linder Distinguished Residency Director Chair, inaugural director of the UNMC Interprofessional Academy of Educators, and the 2021 Varner Educator Laureate. Dr. Talmon has more than 120 peer-reviewed publications to his credit, along with multiple book chapters and dozens of invited presentations. The book he co-edited, “Mind the Gap: Generational Differences in Medical Education,” is the first work dedicated to managing intergenerational conflict in medical education. He is past president of the Nebraska Association of Pathologists and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathology Board of Certification and the National Board of Medical Examiners.
Engagement
Innovation, Development and Engagement Award (IDEA): Recognizes faculty members who have extended their academic expertise beyond the boundaries of the university in ways that have enriched the broader community.
Dejun Su, PhD, associate professor in the UNMC Department of Health Promotion. Dr. Su’s research focuses on health disparities and social determinants of health, as indicated by more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. As principal investigator, Dr. Su has secured research grants totaling more than $5 million, including a recent federal grant that will allow Dr. Su and his team to train 240 community health workers and promote their integration into health care delivery for the provision of patient-centered, holistic care across Nebraska. As director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities from 2012 to 2022, Dr. Su doubled extramural funding support and increased the number of scholarly publications sixfold. Leveraging extensive partnerships between the center and community agencies, Dr. Su also led the effort to make UNMC’s College of Public Health the only public health school in the nation to receive the prestigious Harrison C. Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service in 2020, issued by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.
Commercialization
Faculty IP Innovation and Commercialization Award (FIPICA): Recognizes faculty members who have developed and nurtured significant new intellectual property from concept to licensing/startup business.
Howard Gendelman, MD, Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and chair of the UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience. With more than 580 publications, holder of 138 patents, an H-index of 115, editor or editor-in-chief of 12 textbooks and the Journal Neuroimmune Pharmacology and Therapeutics, a co-founder of two biotechnology companies, a NIH Merit Award Winner, an Outstanding Research and Creative Activity winner, a UNMC scientist laureate, and a Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students, and community humanitarian and life saver awardee; Dr. Gendelman is a luminary of the University of Nebraska. He earned his bachelor’s degree in natural sciences and Russian studies with honors from Muhlenberg College, an MD that was followed by being named a distinguished alumnus from Pennsylvania State University. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and was a clinical and research fellow in infectious diseases and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. Dr. Gendelman also is the past recipient of the Henry L. Moses Award in Basic Science, the Pioneer in NeuroVirology, a Carter-Wallace Fellow for Distinction in AIDS Research, and the Joseph Wybran Award from the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology, where he is currently the president-elect. .
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, congratulated Drs. Gendelman, Talmon and Su on their awards.
“We are excited and proud to have these UNMC faculty recognized for their outstanding efforts,” he said. “Their UNMC colleagues join President Carter in applauding their exemplary work.”