2025 Sujack Awards
2025 Sujack Award Winners
The College of Arts and Sciences has named the 12 honorees for the 2025 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 remain the highest academic honor that a faculty member can receive within the College of Arts and Sciences,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "This award not only celebrates innovative and transformative teaching, but also the profound impact that faculty have on the academic and personal growth of our students. We are deeply grateful to the Sujack family for their continued generosity and longstanding commitment to recognizing the essential role of exceptional teaching in Jesuit higher education.”
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.
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.
2025 Edwin T. & Vivijeanne F. Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence
Leanna Boychenko, Associate Professor, Classical Studies
Jennifer Mierisch, Associate Professor, Biology
2025 Master Teachers
Yuna Blajer de la Garza, Assistant Professor, Political Science
James Devery, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Wendy Gruhl, Advanced Lecturer, Forensic Science
Walter Tangarife, Associate Professor, Physics
2025 Sujack Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence
Michael Grillo, Assistant Professor, Biology
Yasin Silva, Associate Professor, Computer Science
2025 Master Researchers
Minwoo Jung, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Pengfei Li, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Tracy Pintchman, Professor, Theology
Michael Schumacher, Lecturer, Criminal Justice and Criminology
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: Salma Muhammad (Psychology major) and Taylor Starkey (Political Science major). Members of the Research Award Review Committee included David Doherty (Political Science), who served as committee chair, Olegs Andrejevs (Theology), and Weiming Yu (Biology). Both committees were ably assisted by Monica Ramos, Executive Assistant to the Dean, and Amanda Dennis, Office Assistant.
An award ceremony was held on April 24, 2025, to recognize the 2025 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 13 schools and colleges. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments, 31 interdisciplinary programs, and 7 interdisciplinary 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.”
The College of Arts and Sciences has named the 12 honorees for the 2025 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 remain the highest academic honor that a faculty member can receive within the College of Arts and Sciences,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "This award not only celebrates innovative and transformative teaching, but also the profound impact that faculty have on the academic and personal growth of our students. We are deeply grateful to the Sujack family for their continued generosity and longstanding commitment to recognizing the essential role of exceptional teaching in Jesuit higher education.”
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.
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.
2025 Edwin T. & Vivijeanne F. Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence
Leanna Boychenko, Associate Professor, Classical Studies
Jennifer Mierisch, Associate Professor, Biology
2025 Master Teachers
Yuna Blajer de la Garza, Assistant Professor, Political Science
James Devery, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Wendy Gruhl, Advanced Lecturer, Forensic Science
Walter Tangarife, Associate Professor, Physics
2025 Sujack Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence
Michael Grillo, Assistant Professor, Biology
Yasin Silva, Associate Professor, Computer Science
2025 Master Researchers
Minwoo Jung, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Pengfei Li, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Tracy Pintchman, Professor, Theology
Michael Schumacher, Lecturer, Criminal Justice and Criminology
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: Salma Muhammad (Psychology major) and Taylor Starkey (Political Science major). Members of the Research Award Review Committee included David Doherty (Political Science), who served as committee chair, Olegs Andrejevs (Theology), and Weiming Yu (Biology). Both committees were ably assisted by Monica Ramos, Executive Assistant to the Dean, and Amanda Dennis, Office Assistant.
An award ceremony was held on April 24, 2025, to recognize the 2025 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 13 schools and colleges. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments, 31 interdisciplinary programs, and 7 interdisciplinary 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.”