Thanking and Recognizing Our Faculty - April 10, 2023

Dear Faculty,

During Faculty Appreciation Week, I want to take the time to thank you, our faculty, for everything that you do to help advance our university’s mission to build a better world through your commitment to research, discovery, and our students’ success.   

Ensuring our faculty’s success is very much related to our focus on becoming an employer of choice. We not only want to attract the best talent, but we also want to retain faculty who are an integral part of the university, have demonstrated their immense talent in their fields, and are critically important to our campus’ mission.

Becoming an employer of choice also means recognizing and celebrating our faculty’s achievements and continuing to support them so that they can further their scholarship, their commitment to teaching, and their contributions to outreach, engagement, and collaboration within our state, nation, and world. 

Two faculty members who have recently been recognized for their outstanding achievements are Dr. Min Zou and Dr. Cory Mixdorf. Both Dr. Zou and Dr. Mixdorf exemplify how our faculty advances our university and how the university also supports our faculty in their work.

Dr. Zou is a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering and was recently honored with the SEC Faculty Achievement Award for the University of Arkansas.   This award recognizes faculty with outstanding records in research and scholarship across the SEC’s member universities.  Dr. Zou is internationally recognized for her expertise and research in nanoscale surface engineering, nanomechanics, and nanotribology. Read more on Dr. Zou’s research and this prestigious award.

Dr. Mixdorf is an associate professor in trombone in the Department of Music.  His debut record, Songs & Elegies, received a Global Music Award for Outstanding Achievement for an Instrumental Album. The Global Music Awards is an international music competition that celebrates independent musicians.  Learn more about Dr. Mixdorf’s album and this great accomplishment.

To continue to show our appreciation and recognize our outstanding faculty this week, the Office for Faculty Affairs has planned several activities and giveaways, including a drawing for the opportunity to watch the first home football game with Chancellor Robinson. Enjoy free coffee at Hill Coffee and discounts at Hog Heaven and the campus bookstore all week.  Faculty can also receive discounted baseball and softball tickets, attend a free yoga class, and visit TIPS in the CORD for free classroom supplies.

Thank you again for all the work you’ve done and continue to do for our university and campus community. I appreciate you!

Best regards,

Terry Martin, Ph.D.

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Professor of Electrical Engineering