Four assistant professors have been recognized for outstanding teaching and research as part of an ongoing program to spotlight and support promising junior faculty in the College of LAS.

Eric Calderwood, comparative and world literature; Jenny Davis, anthropology, American Indian studies, and gender and women’s studies; Wendy Yang, plant biology; and Sihai Dave Zhao, statistics, have received the Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Award, which is granted to faculty based on scholarly productivity and contributions to the educational mission of their departments and the college.

The LEAP Scholars will retain the award for two years, receiving $5,000 in discretionary research funding each of those years. The recipients were nominated by executive officers in departments across the college, and they were selected by a committee of senior distinguished faculty across several units.