Nominations are open for CALS Awards. This is your opportunity to honor your outstanding colleagues for exceptional work. There is one nomination form for all awards (be prepared to provide a single PDF of all nomination materials). You can find nomination requirements and details on each award on the CALS Awards website. The nomination deadline is Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2026 at noon, and the 2027 CALS Awards Ceremony will take place in spring (date TBD).

The people make CALS excellent. Together, students, faculty and staff carry out the mission to advance and share knowledge, discover solutions and promote opportunities in food and agriculture, bioenergy, health, the environment and human well-being with their diverse skills, knowledge, creativity and passions. CALS recognizes and is grateful for the commitment and hard work of all of our community members.

The CALS annual awards are an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the people who have led the efforts and contributed to the accomplishments of our college. Please consider submitting an award nomination to celebrate a CALS community member.

To prepare a nomination, create a single PDF named “NomineeLastName-Award-DateSubmitted” (for example, Smith-Maurer-2026-11-15.pdf) with:

1. (Required) A cover page with the nominee’s name, department, and the award name.
2. (Required) A description of the nominee’s achievements and accomplishments as they relate to the award description and criteria (see the CALS Awards website for award information). Character limit is 2,500 (approximately 300-350 words or one page of text).
3. (Optional) Supporting documents (e.g. resume/CV, letters of support). If including letters of support, keep them to 300-350 words or one page of text each. 
4. (Required if submitting a nomination for the Spitzer Teaching Excellence Award) Document from the nominee that outlines their teaching philosophy and includes their most recent courses taught (2 page max).

If you have questions, please contact Kara Luedtke.