TEES Faculty Fellow Awards

In keeping with The Texas A&M University System's goals, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Fellows Program was created to recognize outstanding individual research performance and encourage the continued development of exceptional initiatives.

Award Categories

The TEES Fellows Program has two categories of awards:

• TEES Faculty Fellow/Senior Faculty Fellow.
• TEES Young Faculty Fellow.

TEES Faculty Fellows selected for a third year (not necessarily consecutive) earn the designation of TEES Senior Faculty Fellow. This is a permanent designation that carries no explicit monetary award beyond what is described in the “financial” section lower on this page. Please note that senior faculty fellow nominations require a complete nomination packet.

Nominations for TEES Faculty Fellow/Senior Faculty Fellow and TEES Young Faculty Fellow may be made only by engineering department heads or TEES center directors. A committee formed by the vice chancellor of engineering will evaluate the nominations and recommend candidates for approval.

TEES Faculty Fellow and Senior Faculty Fellow awards are reserved for the ranks of professor and associate professor. The main purpose of these awards is to recognize long-term outstanding performance.

The TEES Young Faculty Fellow award is typically reserved for the rank of assistant professor and recognizes outstanding performance of promising new faculty.

Candidates in either category must be nominated each year and compete without regard to previous appointments.

Nomination Guide

To ensure the eligibility of nominees, please see the eligibility requirements page.

Nominees must also meet the following criteria:

• All candidates must be nominated through an engineering department head or a TEES center director.
• A maximum of one nomination may be submitted by each department or TEES center or TEES institute for each category: TEES Faculty Fellow/Senior Faculty Fellow and TEES Young Faculty Fellow.
  • Exception: If your department or TEES center or institute has more than 30 tenured/tenure track faculty or TEES research engineers at the beginning of the fall semester, you may submit up to two nominations in each category.
• The nominator should solicit input from departmental personnel, either from a committee or from key advisors.
• Nominees must have an active, funded TEES research program.
• Department heads are not eligible.
• Endowed chair or professorship holders are not eligible.

Selection Considerations

Because the purpose of the Fellows Program is to recognize outstanding performance, the selection criteria encompass several objective measures of performance. These awards are based upon work at Texas A&M University and/or TEES, particularly over the last five years, or less in the case of Young Faculty nominees.

In addition to this, considerations include:

• Evidence of an ongoing and productive research program through TEES.
• Research contracts – types and amounts, including other proposal activity.
• Publications, monographs and textbooks.
• Professional society memberships and service activities.
• Support of other faculty or staff in research contracts.
• Graduate and extension teaching and activity in graduate student training/mentoring.
• Patents, invention disclosures and copyrights.
• Recognition, honors and awards.

Financial

The award is a maximum of $5,000 for program recipients. An account may be established within TEES for use by the awardee. Use of these funds must conform to established TEES fiscal policies, and may be used to travel to technical meetings, for research equipment, for salaries or for any usual research project activity. Alternatively, the awardee may elect to receive the funds as a one-time salary supplement, which is subject to withholding and other normal payroll deductions, including federal taxes, thereby reducing the actual amount received.

Nomination Packet 

One electronic copy of each nomination must be submitted. Letters of recommendation are not required and should not be included.

For each nomination packet, please include these items, in this order:

1. The nomination form.
2. The nominee’s CV (limited to 20 pages).

More Information

For questions regarding these guidelines, please contact Nicole Abinajm at engr-awards@tamu.edu. The number of awards awarded will depend on the availability of funds.

Past Recipients

See past recipients of TEES Faculty Fellow Awards in the categories of TEES Faculty Fellow/Senior Faculty Fellow and TEES Young Faculty Fellow.