Nominations for University Distinguished Professors are currently OPEN. The nomination deadline is Friday, October 31 at 5 p.m.

Criteria:

Faculty members appointed as University Distinguished Professors will have records of performance ranking them among the most outstanding members of their disciplines. This should be reflected by their research, publications, exhibitions, artistic performance, or other mode of accomplishment. Consistent with their accomplishments, past successful nominees have received major awards, prizes, honors, and/or other forms of professional national and international recognition of their outstanding accomplishment in their areas of specialization, artistry, or expertise, acknowledging that the criteria and the modes of recognition of excellence vary with discipline.

Submission requirements:

Any group of three or more faculty members may nominate a candidate who is an actively engaged tenured full professor. Nominations must be confidential and, to the extent possible, not revealed to the candidate. Nominations must include: 

1. A nomination letter including a concise narrative statement (<1000 words) interpreting the information provided in the context of the nominee’s discipline, and indicating why the nominee merits the title of University Distinguished Professor. Endorsement of the nomination letter with the signatures of the candidate’s Department Chair and Dean is recommended.
2. A document of up to five (5) pages listing all relevant accomplishments of the candidate. This should provide evidence of the impact of the nominee’s accomplishments, e.g., a record of highly cited publications; favorable mention in appropriate publications; receipt of honors, prizes, and/or recognitions; and contributions to building a leading program at CSU.
3. A document that includes the names, titles, and contact information for three (3) internationally recognized disciplinary peers cognizant of the significance of the nominee’s research. The nominator should provide a brief explanation of the relationship between the referee and the nominee and why the referee was suggested. The selection of referees should avoid those persons with a significant conflict of interest such as former mentors or mentees, recent collaborators (within five years), or other reasons for recusal.
4. Letters from external references may not be included with the nomination packet; these will be requested separately as part of the selection process.  

University-wide submissions are encouraged:

Nominations from all University disciplines are welcomed and strongly encouraged, so that the University Distinguished Professors represent excellence across the disciplinary breadth of the entire CSU faculty.

Deadline:

The deadline for the receipt of nominations is Friday, October 31, 2025, 5 p.m. (MT).

Nomination packets must be submitted through the CSU InfoReady System. Nominators can access the system using their NetIDs, at the following link: https://colostate.infoready4.com/

Please locate the “CSU – University Distinguished Professor (UDP)” opportunity, and click on the title to open the opportunity information page.

Past nominations:

Applications submitted in the previous submission cycle will not be carried over. Nominations must be updated and resubmitted to be considered.