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Nomination Guidelines

The University Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship

The University Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship recognizes scholarly or creative work over the previous five years by a faculty member that represents a major contribution to a field of knowledge or to the arts.

  • 2023 Winner
    Michelle Bezanson, Anthropology

    Professor Bezanson, who joined the Department of Anthropology in 2006, has made a tremendous impact on field ethics and holistic approaches to science communication through her research on primatology.  As noted by a colleague, she has positively transformed her discipline’s methodological approaches in the spirit of building and sustaining ethical human-primate relations and research practices.

    Her contributions as an illustrator and artist are especially impressive and unique. She has reimagined how scientific research can be effectively communicated through her skills and efforts in illustration. To this end, she has contributed 19 unique illustration projects in publications and to professional societies, even leading a recent symposium on the topic of how to creatively deliver research to broader audiences. Dr. Bezanson has guided more than 100 Santa Clara students in field research in Costa Rica, with twenty-six of those being subsequently inspired to seek graduate degrees. In 2022, Michelle was inducted into the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), making her one of only two current fellows at Santa Clara. She is a truly outstanding teacher-scholar, who has made unique creative, and ethical contributions to her own field and beyond.

  • 2022 - Colleen Chien (Law)
  • 2021 - On Shun Pak (Mechanical Engineering)
  • 2020 - Jasmín Llamas (Counseling Psychology)
  • 2019 - Chris Kitts, Engineering
  • 2018 - George Cai (Information Systems & Analytics)
  • 2017 - Gary Spitko (Law)
  • 2016 - Siqi Li (Accounting)
  • 2015 - Blake de Maria (Art & Art History)
  • 2014- Yongtae Kim (Accounting
  • 2013- Ed Mauer (Civil Engineering)
  • 2012 - Lisa Kealhofer (Anthropology)
  • 2011 - Fabio Lopez-Lazaro (History)
  • 2010 - Michelle Oberman (Law)
  • 2009 - Michelle Marvier (Biology & Environmental Science)
  • 2008 - SunWolf (Communications)
  • 2007 - Sanjiv Das (Finance)
  • 2006 - Michael Carassco (Chemistry)
  • 2005 - Thomas Plante (Psychology)
  • 2004 - Tim Urdan (Psychology)
  • 2003 - J. David Pleins (Religious Studies)
  • 2002 - Nam Ling (Computer Engineering)
  • 2001 - June Carbone (Law)
  • 2000 - John Hawley (English)