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University of Florida

2025 Postdoc Awards

2025 Call for Nominations

UF Prestigious Awards and Postdoctoral Affairs is now accepting nominations for these 2025 awards:

Open to postdocs and mentors from all disciplines, these awards are designed to highlight important contributions made by UF postdoctoral associates and fellows.

The awards include a certificate, plaque, and monetary prize. (Prize money will be UF budget funds transferred from the UF Graduate School to the award recipient and will follow the criteria for use designated for these funds.

The deadline for nominations is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, November 11, 2025.

The awards ceremony is slated for Monday, December 8, 2025 — so nominees and nominators, mark your calendars!

We will inform finalists and winners in the days leading up to the ceremony and announce it on our website.

Questions? Email Pallavi Eswara at postdoc-affairs@ufl.edu.

Outstanding Postdoc Award

Eligibility 

  • Be a UF postdoc in good standing at the time of the application and till at least the end of the calendar year. 
  • All research, service, leadership, and accomplishments are from the time of postdoc training. 
  • Have been a postdoc at UF for at least a year by the deadline of the nomination  
  • Should not have been a winner of any postdoc award in 2024. Finalists from 2024 can be nominated this year.  

Nomination Process

Faculty mentors of the postdoc or the postdoc themselves can submit the nomination 

The components of the nomination package are: Postdoc’s name, UF ID, email address, department/institute, college, postdoc’s personal statement of 250 words describing their postdoc training and future plans, CV, support letter from postdoc’s PI/supervisor/mentor.

The supporting nomination letter by the faculty should be a maximum of two pages single-spaced, or 1,000 words. The nomination letter can include supporting statements from other UF/non-UF mentors, UF/non-UF mentees, collaborators and colleagues. 

Criteria for Award

The selection committee will evaluate the nominations for this category using these criteria, as applicable. 

  • Research excellence 
    • Publications in top tier peer review journal of the field 
    • Book chapter or book publication 
    • Grant or fellowship submission and securing funding from internal and/or external sources 
    • Outreach based on research 

  • Mentoring and Teaching 
    • Exemplary mentoring of graduate and/or undergraduate students  
    • Supervising undergraduate research projects as co-mentors 
    • Teaching lab, or classroom courses at the college level 

  • Professional Leadership and Service 
    • Participating in local, regional or national organizations and/committees 
    • Contributing to the growth, visibility of the group  
    • Impacting students, researchers or general public 
    • Editorial and peer review experience 

  • Community Service and Outreach 
    • Volunteering 
    • Teaching K-12, informal teaching through broader impact events 

Nomination Form

Click here for the Outstanding Postdoc Award nomination form online.

Excellence in Research for Postdocs Award

Eligibility 

  • Be a UF postdoc in good standing at the time of the application and till at least the end of the calendar year. 
  • All research, service, leadership, and accomplishments are from the time of postdoc training. 
  • Have been a postdoc at UF for at least a year by the deadline of the nomination  
  • Should not have been a winner of any postdoc award in 2024. Finalists from 2024 can be nominated this year. 

Nomination process 

Faculty mentors of the postdoc or the postdoc themselves can submit the nomination 

The components of the nomination package are: Postdoc’s name, UF ID, email address, department/institute, college, postdoc’s personal statement of 250 words describing their postdoc training and future plans, CV, support letter from postdoc’s PI/supervisor/mentor.

The supporting nomination letter by the faculty should be a maximum of two pages single-spaced, or 1,000 words. The nomination letter can include supporting statements from other UF/non-UF mentors, UF/non-UF mentees, collaborators and colleagues. 

Criteria for Award 

The selection committee will evaluate the nominations for this category using these criteria, as applicable. 

  • Research excellence
    • Publications in top tier peer review journal of the field 
    • Book chapter or book publication 
    • Grant or fellowship submission and securing funding from internal and/or external sources 
    • Mentoring undergrads, research staff and/grad students 
    • Outreach based on research 
    • Innovations in research methods, management 
    • Leading or excelling in interdisciplinary research/collaborations 
    • Patents, entrepreneurship 
    • New initiatives related to research 

Nomination Form

Click here for the Outstanding Postdoc Award nomination form online.

Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award

Eligibility 

  • Be a UF Tenure track faculty member in good standing with at least one year or more spent mentoring postdocs at UF as of the date of the nomination deadline.

Nomination Process

Nominations should be submitted by a current UF postdoc and can include supporting statements by other current and past postdocs who have been mentored by the faculty member. 

The components of the nomination package for UF Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Postdoc Award are: 

Faculty name, UFID, email address, department/institute, college and a single nomination letter. 

We require a single nomination letter for the Outstanding Faculty Mentor award. The postdoc submitting the nomination can request supporting statements from current and past postdocs. The nomination letter should be a maximum of 2 pages, single space, or 1000 words and should address as many criteria of the award as possible. 

Criteria for Award

  • Creating a supportive postdoctoral training environment

  • Communication with mentees 

  • Demonstrated support of  
    • professional development through Individual Development Plan, resources, conference attendance and other ways 
    • mentoring and support during challenging research projects and/or other professional situations 
    • personal challenges 
    • work-life balance 
    • Support for career exploration and career advancement 
    • Other ways in which the faculty member demonstrates exemplary postdoctoral mentoring 

Nomination Form

Click here for the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award nomination form online.