The following awards recognize and encourage UWM faculty early in their careers whose research, scholarly, or creative activity have shown potential to achieve distinction in their academic disciplines or to honor veteran researchers who have a long history of significant contributions to their fields of research.
Division of Research / UWM Foundation Research Awards
First awarded in 1979, the annual Division of Research /UWM Foundation Research Awards recognize and encourage UWM Assistant and Associate Professors who have shown the potential to achieve distinction in their academic disciplines through scholarship, creative activity, and the dissemination of knowledge.
Departments/programs are encouraged to nominate a faculty member. In addition to providing a means of honoring outstanding researchers, these awards recognize our collective commitment to academic research and the importance of UWM’s research mission.
Division of Research / UWM Foundation Senior Faculty Awards
The UWM Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Division of Research, has established the UWM Research Foundation Senior Faculty Awards to recognize researchers who have a long history of significant contributions to their field of research.
Departments/programs are encouraged to nominate a faculty member. In addition to providing a means of honoring outstanding researchers, these awards recognize our collective commitment to academic research and the importance of UWM’s research mission.
Research in the Humanities Award (Biennial)
Offered by the Division of Research, the Research in the Humanities Award recognizes outstanding scholarship and research in the Humanities within the past two years.
The recipient will have demonstrated a comprehensive grasp of the subject(s) of inquiry and research and will have made a substantive contribution to humanistic thought through a monograph or other scholarly publication during the two years prior to the award year.
In each odd-numbered year, the Division of Research solicits award nominations of faculty members in the Humanities (see Eligibility & Nomination below for eligible departments). The award recipient will receive $1,500 and will be honored at the UWM Fall Awards Ceremony.
Outstanding Creative Research Achievement Award (Biennial)
The Outstanding Creative Research Achievement Award recognizes a UWM faculty member for achieving significant artistic or creative contribution to their field or discipline within the past three years. The recipient will receive $1,500 and will be honored at the UWM Fall Awards Ceremony. This award is offered biennially in rotation with the Research in the Humanities Award, which recognizes scholarly monographs in the humanities.
Division of Research / UWM Foundation Research Awards
Eligibility
- Open to Assistant and Associate Professors.
- Full Professors and Distinguished Professors are ineligible.
- Previous research awardees are ineligible.
- One individual may be nominated from a single department or program.
Nomination
A call for nominations is distributed each Spring from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination from a dean, department chair, or multidisciplinary program director; two letters of support; and an up-to-date vita. Letters of support may be secured from UWM faculty members or from colleagues outside UWM. Submission of or quotation from confidential letters written for another purpose require permission of the author(s).
Selection
The Committee of UWM Distinguished Professors reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the Vice Provost for Research for the final selections. Award recipients receive $1,500 and will be honored at the UWM Fall Awards Ceremony.
Division of Research / UWM Foundation Research Awards
Caitlin Bowman, Associate Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Caitlin Bowman’s research focuses on how the brain forms, stores, and retrieves memories and how that process changes in older age. She uses functional MRI and computational modeling to better understand how we both remember specific, unique experiences and how we combine across related experiences to build general knowledge of how the world works. She has published 30+ empirical articles, reviews, and book chapters, including six publications with UWM trainees. Her work has been funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the American Psychological Association, and Bader Philanthropies. She serves on the leadership team for UWM’s Success Through Aging Research (STAR) Program, an undergraduate training program funded by the NIA. She has mentored four PhD students and more than 30 undergraduate research assistants since joining UWM in 2021.
Linda Wesp, Assistant Professor of Nursing
Linda Wesp’s research includes theoretical framework development, empirical qualitative research, and the advancement of nursing care aimed at generating new knowledge to address health inequities among LGBTQIA+ populations. She is a recipient of the Hillman Foundation Emergent Innovation Grant and the UWM Discovery and Innovation Grant to support community-led interventions addressing urgent health needs in Milwaukee. She has contributed as a co-author and editor to national and international clinical guidelines on evidence-based care, as well as the 2022 textbook Clinician’s Guide to LGBTQIA+ Care: Cultural Safety in Sexual, Reproductive, and Primary Healthcare. She has also guest-edited special issues for two nursing journals focused on LGBTQIA+ health. Her accomplishments have also been recognized with her recent induction as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Division of Research Senior Faculty Awards
The UWM Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Division of Research, has established the UWM Research Foundation Senior Faculty Awards to recognize researchers who have a long history of significant contributions to their field of research.
Departments/programs are encouraged to nominate a faculty member. In addition to providing a means of honoring outstanding researchers, these awards recognize our collective commitment to academic research and to the importance of UWM’s research mission.
Eligibility
- Open to Full Professors.
- UWM Distinguished Professors are ineligible.
- Previous awardees are ineligible.
- Only one individual may be nominated from a single department or multidisciplinary program.
Nomination
The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination from a dean, department chair, or multidisciplinary program director; two letters of support; and an up-to-date vita. Letters of support may be secured from UWM faculty members or from colleagues outside UWM. Submission of or quotation from confidential letters written for another purpose require permission of the author(s).
Selection
The Committee of UWM Distinguished Professors will review the nominations and make recommendations to the Vice Provost for Research for the final selections. Award recipients will receive $1,500 and will be honored at the UWM Fall Awards Ceremony.
Division of Research / UWM Foundation Senior Faculty Awards
Rob Cuzner, Joanne and Richard Grigg Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Rob Cuzner leads the Center for Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems and directs the NSF-funded I/UCRC GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems (GRAPES). His research focuses on developing energy-secure electrical systems for Navy ships, military bases, data centers, microgrids, and transmission networks, including advancing power conversion design tools and metaheuristic modeling to help designers assess emerging technologies and their impacts on end-use applications. He has received more than $8 million in grant funding, and advised and funded over 30 Master’s and PhD graduates who now work at companies, government agencies, utilities across the U.S., and some internationally, with many employed in Milwaukee.
Hanjoo Lee, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Hanjoo Lee’s research focuses on the neurocognitive mechanisms of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and trauma-related conditions alongside developing scalable, remote-accessible digital therapeutic interventions. Dr. Lee has received more than $5 million in grant funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), CTSI, and the UWM Research Foundation. He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders and as an editorial board member for several psychology and psychiatry journals. His commitment to student success has been recognized by the 2025 UWM Accessibility Resource Center Excellence Award, UWM Office of Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year nominations in 2024 and 2025, and the 2015 Stellar Student Affairs Partner Star Award.
Research in the Humanities Award (Biennial)
Offered by the Division of Research, the Research in the Humanities Award recognizes outstanding scholarship and research in the Humanities within the past two years. The award recipient will have demonstrated a comprehensive grasp of the subject(s) of inquiry and research and will have made a substantive contribution to humanistic thought through a monograph or other scholarly publication during the two years prior to the award year.
In each odd-numbered year, the Division of Research solicits award nominations of faculty members in the Humanities (see below for eligible departments). The award recipient will receive $1,500 and will be honored at the UWM Fall Awards Ceremony.
Eligibility
- Humanities faculty members in the following departments: African and African Diaspora Studies; Ancient & Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Art History; Communication; English; Global Studies; History; Linguistics; Literatures, and Cultures; Philosophy; Spanish and Portuguese; Translation and Interpreting; Women’s and Gender Studies.
- Author of monograph or other scholarly publication that was published during January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2022.
Nomination
The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination; two letters of support; an up-to-date vita and a copy of the monograph or other scholarly publication. Calls for nomination are generally issued in February of each award year and are due in March.
Outstanding Creative Research Achievement Award (Biennial)
The Outstanding Creative Research Achievement Award recognizes a UWM faculty member for achieving significant artistic or creative contribution to their field or discipline within the past three years. The award recipient will receive $1,500 and will be honored at the UWM Fall Awards Ceremony. The award is offered biennially in rotation with the Research in the Humanities Award, which recognizes scholarly monographs in the humanities.
Eligibility
Any tenured or tenure-track UWM faculty member is eligible for nomination. Evidence of artistic or creative accomplishment (significant advancement of knowledge, technique, or creative expression) must be in a form that is appropriate to the nominee’s professional field/discipline.
Selection
A panel composed of the Vice Provost for Research; Associate Deans in the College of Arts and Architecture, the College of Letters & Science (Associate Dean for the Humanities), and the chair of the Arts and Humanities divisional committee will make the final selection.
Nominations
The nomination materials should include a letter of nomination and an up-to-date vita. Calls for nomination are generally issued in January of each award year and are due in March.
Research in the Humanities Award (Biennial)
Blain Neufeld, Department of Philosophy
Dr. Blain Neufeld is recognized for his 2022 monograph, Public Reason and Political Autonomy: Realizing the Ideal of a Civic People, an ethical-political examination of Rawlsian theory in the face of peoples’ fractured perception of justice in modern democracy – a work resoundingly celebrated by his peers. Neufelds’ arguments propose a “public reason” justification for modern political liberalism as opposed to the dominant “respect-based” reasoning, viewed as a breakthrough in the modern theory that consensually endorsed principles not only are compatible with but indeed enhance autonomy. His position is well-defended, his scholarship meticulous and carefully debated to deliver an opus in the examination of social justice in the modern day.
Nigel Rothfels, Department of History
If Dr. Rothfels had established himself over the last three decades as one of the world’s foremost historians of animals and human-animal relations, his 2021 book, Elephant Trails cements his place there. From a cross-disciplinary perspective, Rothfels shares the history of human-elephant interaction: “Spanning from ancient natural history accounts to colonial ivory hunting, to shifting husbandry practices in the zoo industry, (Trails) offers complex and compelling analysis, particularly on polarizing issues such as the history and future of elephant hunting and captivity”. His work demonstrates the significance of a humanities approach to biological and ecological questions. Dr. Rothfels is recognized for this work of top-tier academic excellence. “His combination of extensive archival work and tenacious field research in zoos and museums enables him to offer the layered storytelling and nuanced analysis that is often lacking in animal history.”
2024 Outstanding Creative Research Achievement Award (Biennial)
Mike Gibisser, Associate Professor of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres
Mike Gibisser is a filmmaker and artist interested in navigating the indefinite lines between essay, narrative, experimental, and documentary work. Over the past decade, he has completed two narrative features (“Finally, Lillian and Dan” and “World of Facts”) and two feature-film essays (“A Common Sequence” and “The Day of Two Noons”), as well as several experimental and nonfiction shorts. He has presented work at numerous festivals around the world, including Sundance, the Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London, Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, the European Media Arts Festival and the New York Film Festival. His work has been featured in Bomb Magazine, Artforum, Variety, and Cinemascope, among other publications.