University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella was one of two honorees celebrated as 2024 University Distinguished Professors at the UA’s annual Luminaries: Outstanding Faculty Awards ceremony.
Overall, 37 faculty members received awards divided into seven sections.
“I don’t think anybody was left out,” said Gail Burd, senior vice provost in the Office of Academic Affairs, Teaching and Learning who was on the organizing committee of the ceremony, when asked about the choice of Garimella, an administrator new to the UA.
“He is an academic to the core. He cares about the students, he cares about the faculty. He’s had hundreds of students. I’m a distinguished professor and I believe he is 100% appropriate for this award,” Burd said.
Garimella, who has been UA president for just a month, previously was president of the University of Vermont and executive vice president for research and partnerships at Purdue University.
He was honored at the UA awards Wednesday afternoon as a professor of aerospace-mechanical engineering, and as one of six honorees in the section of Distinguished Faculty Awards.
The other honoree for 2024 University Distinguished Professor was Robert Fleischman, professor of civil and architectural engineering and mechanics.
“The University Distinguished Professor Award is one of the top faculty honors. The criteria for that specific award limits it to two honorees each year,” UA spokesperson Mitch Zak told the Arizona Daily Star.
The rest of the honorees in the section were Marcela Vásquez-León for 2024 University Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award, Elise Gornish for 2024 Distinguished Scholar Award, Buell Jannuzi for 2024 Distinguished Department Head Award and Christopher Castro for 2024 Distinguished Department Head Award. Castro left the UA earlier this year to be director of the National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research Research Applications Laboratory.
The seven sections of awards included Distinguished Faculty Awards, Excellence in Teaching Awards, Research and Innovation Awards, Service Awards, Mentoring Awards, Postdoctoral & Early Career Awards and National Awards. To view a full list of the honorees, see universityevents.arizona.edu/outstanding-faculty.
The awards process is administered by the Provost Office through Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Andrea Romero, Zak said.
“Usually, there are nominating committees in a department or college and selection committees assembled by the Provost Office that generally consist of peers of those nominated; they often have received the same award at a previous time and are mostly faculty,” said Zak. “The major exception is the Five Star Faculty Award, which is administered by the Franke Honors College and the award winner is selected by students.”
Garimella began the ceremony by addressing the crowd of approximately 100 faculty and staff gathered at Crowder Hall.
Student success and research prowess could not happen “without the contributions of our faculty, and that’s why this is such an important day, and it’s such an important event that we have on the calendar,” he said. “Your dedication to our students, your contributions to your technical communities and your research communities, and your service to our community … have positioned the University of Arizona to be such an amazing institution that is so well regarded across the world.”
The university’s “north star” is student success, he added.
Preceding the president’s address, luminaries and senior leaders of the UA filed into the hall in two queues, dressed in flowing multi-colored robes and doctorate graduation tams.
In addition to recognizing the contributions of faculty, the ceremony also honored five UA PhD students from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Mentoring Awards section as 2024 Graduate Student Peer Mentors.
The awardees included students from the History Graduate Association, a graduate student-led UA peer mentoring group.
