Wednesday, June 26, 2024
  Around Campus, Faculty Focus

By News and Internal Communications

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – JUNE 26, 2024 – The UTRGV Office of Faculty Affairs has named 10 faculty members as recipients of the 2023-2024 UTRGV Faculty Excellence Awards.

The annual excellence awards recognize faculty who have demonstrated outstanding work in the areas of teaching, online teaching, research, service, student mentoring, community-engaged scholarship and sustainability education. 

Dr. Luis H. Zayas, UTRGV provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, congratulated this year’s awardees for their accomplishments and commended the impact of their work.

“This is an important moment for our institution, a time when we recognize our faculty for their excellent work and dedicated service to their disciplines and our students,” Zayas said. “This acknowledges a small portion of the sustained excellence of our faculty here at UTRGV.”

Recipients of the 2023-2024 UTRGV Faculty Excellence Awards are: 

  • Teaching (Tenure and Tenure-Track): Arturo Fuentes, professor, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science.
  • Teaching (Non-Tenure Track): Eleazar Marquez, assistant professor of practice, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science.
  • Research-Scholarship-Creative Work: Elena Venegas, associate professor, Bilingual and Literacy Studies, College of Education and P-16 Integration.
  • Online Teaching: Judith Guetzow, lecturer II, Health and Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Professions.
  • Service:Teresa Feria Arroyo, professor, School of Integrated Biological and Chemical Sciences, College of Sciences. 
  • Student Mentoring:Constantine Tarawneh, professor, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science.
  • Community Engaged Scholarship:Noe Vargas, assistant professor, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science.
  • Sustainability Education: Debasish Bandyopadhyay, assistant professor, School of Integrated Biological and Chemical Sciences, College of Sciences. 
  • Distinguished Career: Zhaosheng Feng,professor, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, College of Sciences.
  • Emerging Scholar:Nirakar Sahoo, assistant professor, School of Integrated Biological and Chemical Sciences, College of Sciences.

Each faculty winner receives a $5,000 monetary award.

The UTRGV awards are sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Office of Faculty Affairs, and the Division of Institutional Advancement. 



ABOUT UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.

UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.