Microbiome Science Awards – 2025
Nomination Deadline: Friday March 21, 5pm
Goal: The goal of these awards is to recognize individuals who are doing exceptional work related to microbiome science (teaching, research, mentoring, service / public engagement / creative endeavors). These awards are an opportunity to celebrate our peers, colleagues, and students and their outstanding accomplishments. We invite you to nominate a faculty or staff member, a postdoc, a student, or yourself for these awards and look forward to announcing awardees at the 2025 Midwest Microbiome Symposium at Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). The Award Review Committee will consist of 2 representatives from Ohio State University, Purdue University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Please submit nominations here by Friday March 21, 5pm:
Eligibility:
- Faculty, staff, postdocs, and students can all be nominated for any of the awards below, and will be evaluated in separate categories (Categories: Faculty, Staff, Postdocs, Students).
- Note: ONLY Early Career Faculty (Assistant Professors) are eligible for the Faculty Microbiome Science Innovative Research Award.
- Self nominations are welcome for all awards EXCEPT the Mentoring Awards.
- Encouraged but not required: As these awards are supported by the efforts of the Midwest Multidisciplinary Microbiome Symposia Board, we would particularly like to recognize the science and scientists from Midwest institutions and encourage nominations with this in mind.
- Individuals serving on the Award Review Committee may not self nominate, but can be recognized if nominated and selected by the rest of the review committee. However, Award Review Committee members are not eligible to receive any gifts (financial or otherwise) that may be associated with these awards.
Microbiome Science Teaching Award
Recognizing individual(s) engaged in exceptional teaching related to microbiome science. Awardees will be recognized for engaging students with microbiome science academically. This may be through a microbiome science focused course, workshop, or other teaching venue, or through microbiome science curriculum shared in broader coursework.
- Full name of nominee, institution, professional status (e.g. Assistant/Associate/Full Professor or other Faculty, staff, postdoc, grad student, undergraduate)
- Name of nominator, institution, professional status
- In what capacity have you observed the nominee teaching? (e.g. took a class from this nominee? observed this individual teaching?)
- Name of course(s)/workshop, level of class (e.g. undergraduate, graduate, residents, professionals), approx. number of students in class/workshop
- What makes this individual exceptional in teaching? Please describe their contributions in teaching microbiome science.
Microbiome Science Mentoring Award
Recognizing individual(s) engaged in exceptional mentoring in relation to microbiome science. Formal or informal mentoring of students, colleagues, staff, or peers is included. Self nominations are not allowed for this award.
- Name of nominee, institution, professional status (e.g. faculty, staff, grad student, undergraduate)
- Name of nominator, institution, professional status
- In what capacity have you observed the nominee mentoring? (e.g. were your mentored by this individual? Have you observed this individual mentoring?)
- Provide additional information about scope of this individual’s mentorship (type of mentoring, approx. number of mentees)
- What makes this individual exceptional in mentoring in microbiome science? Describe evidence of mentee success.
Microbiome Science Innovative Research Award
Recognizing individual(s) engaged in exceptional research in relation to microbiome science. This award recognizes novel, cutting-edge, impactful (or potential to be impactful) microbiome science. This may include publications, grants, or other forms publicly shared science (e.g. blogs, github, abstracts, preprints, presentations, etc.).
- Note: Only EARLY CAREER FACULTY – Assistant Professors – are eligible for the Faculty Microbiome Science Innovative Research Award.
- Name of nominee, institution, professional status (e.g. Assistant Professor, staff, postdoc, grad student, undergraduate)
- Name of nominator, institution, professional status
- In what capacity are you aware of this individual’s research? (e.g. work in their lab? are a colleague?)
- What makes this individual’s microbiome science research exceptional? Please include a general description of this individual’s research and key contributions to microbiome science. Please provide at least 1 example of support for this nomination (e.g. link to paper, abstract, preprint, website, etc.).
Microbiome Science Service / Public Engagement / Creative Endeavors Award
Recognizing individual(s) engaged in exceptional service, public engagement, or creative endeavors in relation to microbiome science. This may include microbiome science relevant service within an institution or organization, microbiome science relevant public engagement or communications (e.g. blogs, podcasts, presentations, activities, events, news stories), or microbiome science relevant creative endeavors (e.g. art, movies, books).
- Name of nominee, institution, professional status (e.g. Assistant/Associate/Full Professor or other Faculty, staff, postdoc, grad student, undergraduate)
- Name of nominator, institution, professional status
- In what capacity are you aware of this individual’s service / broader engagement / creative endeavors?
- What makes this individual’s microbiome-science relevant service / public engagement / creative endeavors exceptional? You may (but are not required) to include at least 1 example of support for this nomination (e.g. link to article, podcast, event, etc..).