Jacob A. Lutz III Award for Eminent Scholars

Established in 2024, Jacob “Jake” A. Lutz III '78 established the Jacob A. Lutz III Awards for Eminent Scholars Endowment to fund the awards. The $1.15 million supports awarding four faculty members annually — one per disciplinary category — at $10,000 in unrestricted funds. Awardees are selected from faculty at the ranks of tenured associate professor and professor with at least three years of service at Virginia Tech.

One scholar is honored for their long-term, substantive contributions to research and creative scholarship in one of the following four disciplinary categories:

• Science, Engineering, and Technology
• Health and Life Sciences
• Humanities and Social Sciences
• Arts and Design

Nomination Information

Eligibility

• Tenured faculty in the rank of associate professor or professor.
• Must have three years of service at Virginia Tech at the time of nomination. 
• University Distinguished Professors and Alumni Distinguished Professors are not eligible for this award.
• Alumni Award for Research Excellence winners for the prior five years are not eligible for this award.

Nomination Process and Package

Nominations must be received from a dean or institute director, there is no limit on the number of nominations. There is no requirement, explicit or implied, for disciplinary alignment between colleges or departments and Lutz award category. Tenured faculty from all colleges are eligible to be nominated for all Lutz awards and may be nominated for up to two categories. Nomination letters may be written by department heads or other college leadership, but must be endorsed by the dean. 

Nomination package must include:

Cover Page

• Name and title of the nominee 
• Award category(ies) - an individual may be nominated in up to two categories: Science, Engineering and Technology, Health and Life Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, or Arts and Design) 
• Name and title of nominator
• Signature from Dean (if separate from nominator)
• Name, title, brief description of external references (similar to P&T dossier)

Nomination Letter

The nomination letter should be no more than three pages maximum and a thorough summary that pulls together the most important contributions of the faculty member’s research and creative scholarship and clearly articulates the scope and impact of the faculty member’s scholarly work. This letter should clearly describe why the nominee can accurately be described as "eminent".

The letter must include:

• A description of how scholarly excellence is typically measured or identified in the field, and how the nominee meets those standards
• Significant evidence of the nominee's scholarly reputation outside of the university
  
• Highlighted examples of up to three significant contributions to the field

In describing the scope of the nominee's scholarly work, the letter may include:

• Importance of the contributions to the field
• Originality of the work
• Execution of the research
• Pattern of the nominee’s research productivity
• Academic reputation of the journals, publishing houses, exhibitions, and professional presentations in which the nominee’s work has appeared

The letter should be written with an audience OUTSIDE the discipline in mind. 

Curriculum Vitae

The curriculum vitae would especially focus on research, scholarship, innovation, and creative achievement.

Two Letters from External References.

These references may include collaborators, and typically are from national or international experts in the field (academic, industrial, federal agency, professional association, etc.) attesting to the nominee’s contributions and the impact of their work

Selection Criteria

Lutz Award winners will be selected on the evidence of national or international reputation for the faculty member’s research, creativity, and innovation; their contributions to their field and advancement of human knowledge and experience; and the sustained, overall excellence of their scholarship. Example indicators of this excellence include the following, and may differ significantly depending on the field:

• Broadly-accepted indicators of scholarly publication, such as publishing in high-impact journals and high citation numbers
• Invited talks, including plenary and keynote speeches, at significant events
• Publication of books in well-respected publishing houses
• Receipt of prestigious fellowships, awards, or other external recognition
• Presentation of works at prestigious/renowned conferences or exhibitions
• Consistent supervision and training of exceptional graduate and postdoctoral scholars who become independent researchers
• Substantial, prolonged collaboration with leading scholars
• Patents and technology transfer
• Participation and leadership in government, international, and philanthropic advisory boards and studies

Excellence in outreach, service, teaching, and mentorship, while critical to the role of a land-grant university, are not primary considerations for the Lutz Award.

Review the university's full suite of research awards, including the Alumni Award for early career scholars, the frontier award, and the engaged research award, to ensure that the Lutz Award is the best fit for the nominee.

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