Ovation Awards

The Ovation Awards recognize full-time UNM faculty for recent accomplishments with unusually high impact, addressing local or global challenges and/or elevating the scholar's and UNM's reputation on a national/international stage. These may include a significant innovation, discovery, exhibit, or scholarly/creative work, or the establishment of a research resource or program. The award recognizes singular accomplishments rather than career achievement. We seek to recognize faculty at all career stages. Recipients receive a $1000 research allocation and recognition at an annual awards ceremony. 

Do you know of a recent high profile research accomplishment by a UNM faculty member? Let us know! Email Asst. VP for Research Melissa Emery Thompson (memery@unm.edu) with a brief description of the achievement and its impact. In most cases, a link/attachment of a press release or similar article will be sufficient.

Awardees

In 2023 the TEAM Ovation award was granted to the VolCAN project, which made history by flying a drone into an erupting volcano to sample gasses, work that will improve the ability to forecast eruptions. Team PIs are Melanie Moses (Professor of Computer Science), Matthew Fricke (Research Assistant Professor of Computer Science), Jared Saia (Professor of Computer Science), Tobias Fischer (Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences), Scott Nowicki (Research Associate Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences), and Rafael Fierro (Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering)