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2024 Sujack Awards

2024 Sujack Awards, the highest award in the College

Sujack Award in Hand

The College of Arts and Sciences has named the 12 honorees for the 2024 Sujack Awards. The faculty members recognized embody the Jesuit ideal of higher education in their dedication to high standards, to critical thinking, and to the principle that knowledge must be put to the benefit of humanity. 

“The Sujack Awards constitute the highest academic honor that a faculty member can achieve within the College of Arts and Sciences,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “These awards were founded and are generously supported by members of the Sujack family, who for more than three decades have been steadfast friends and benefactors of the College. We thank them for their deep commitment to honoring teaching and research excellence.” 

The Sujack Teaching Awards were established in 1994 by Edwin T. and Vivijeanne F. Sujack to honor two outstanding teachers in the College of Arts and Sciences each year.  

2024 Full Sujack Program

In 2012, the Sujack Family established the Sujack Family Faculty Research Excellence Awards to recognize CAS faculty for their individual research and scholarship outside of the classroom. The categories of Master Teacher and Master Researcher have since been added to recognize continuing excellence in teaching and research. Support from these awards helps faculty conduct research, deepen their scholarship and serve the larger community.

2024 Edwin T. & Vivijeanne F. Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence 

Haysun Kang, Associate Professor, Fine and Performing Arts 
Michael Schumacher, Lecturer, Criminal Justice and Criminology 

2024 Master Teachers  

Catherine Nichols, Senior Lecturer, Anthropology 
Jennifer Parks, Professor, Philosophy 
Polina Pine, Senior Lecturer, Chemistry and Biochemistry 
Sherrie Weller, Senior Lecturer, English 

2024 Sujack Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence 

Alexandru Grigorescu, Professor, Political Science 
Don Stemen, Professor, Criminal Justice and Criminology 

2024 Master Researchers 
 
Emily Cain, Associate Professor, Theology 
Perla Gámez, Associate Professor, Psychology 
Nan Miles Xi, Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics 
Weiming Yu, Associate Professor, Biology 

Winners are selected each year by a committee of faculty and students within the College. Members of the Teaching Award Review Committee included Kelly Howe (Fine and Performing Arts), who served as committee chair, Margaret Guy (Psychology), and Robert McNees (Physics). They were joined by two students: Joshua Jones (Biology major) and Valerie Smith (Biology major). Members of the Research Award Review Committee included Daniel Cavanaugh (Biology), who served as committee chair, Olegs Andrejevs (Theology), and David Doherty (Political Science).   

An award ceremony was held on April 18, 2024, at Information Commons to recognize the 2024 winners and their families.  

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”

Sujack Award in Hand

The College of Arts and Sciences has named the 12 honorees for the 2024 Sujack Awards. The faculty members recognized embody the Jesuit ideal of higher education in their dedication to high standards, to critical thinking, and to the principle that knowledge must be put to the benefit of humanity. 

“The Sujack Awards constitute the highest academic honor that a faculty member can achieve within the College of Arts and Sciences,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “These awards were founded and are generously supported by members of the Sujack family, who for more than three decades have been steadfast friends and benefactors of the College. We thank them for their deep commitment to honoring teaching and research excellence.” 

The Sujack Teaching Awards were established in 1994 by Edwin T. and Vivijeanne F. Sujack to honor two outstanding teachers in the College of Arts and Sciences each year.  

2024 Full Sujack Program

In 2012, the Sujack Family established the Sujack Family Faculty Research Excellence Awards to recognize CAS faculty for their individual research and scholarship outside of the classroom. The categories of Master Teacher and Master Researcher have since been added to recognize continuing excellence in teaching and research. Support from these awards helps faculty conduct research, deepen their scholarship and serve the larger community.

2024 Edwin T. & Vivijeanne F. Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence 

Haysun Kang, Associate Professor, Fine and Performing Arts 
Michael Schumacher, Lecturer, Criminal Justice and Criminology 

2024 Master Teachers  

Catherine Nichols, Senior Lecturer, Anthropology 
Jennifer Parks, Professor, Philosophy 
Polina Pine, Senior Lecturer, Chemistry and Biochemistry 
Sherrie Weller, Senior Lecturer, English 

2024 Sujack Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence 

Alexandru Grigorescu, Professor, Political Science 
Don Stemen, Professor, Criminal Justice and Criminology 

2024 Master Researchers 
 
Emily Cain, Associate Professor, Theology 
Perla Gámez, Associate Professor, Psychology 
Nan Miles Xi, Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics 
Weiming Yu, Associate Professor, Biology 

Winners are selected each year by a committee of faculty and students within the College. Members of the Teaching Award Review Committee included Kelly Howe (Fine and Performing Arts), who served as committee chair, Margaret Guy (Psychology), and Robert McNees (Physics). They were joined by two students: Joshua Jones (Biology major) and Valerie Smith (Biology major). Members of the Research Award Review Committee included Daniel Cavanaugh (Biology), who served as committee chair, Olegs Andrejevs (Theology), and David Doherty (Political Science).   

An award ceremony was held on April 18, 2024, at Information Commons to recognize the 2024 winners and their families.  

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”