Study Architecture 
ProPEL 2026 Distinguished Professor Award
To recognize individuals that have had a positive, stimulating, and nurturing influence upon students.
Deadline: October 8, 2025
Criteria
Candidates should provide evidence of their impact on students and school communities directly and indirectly in areas of teaching, scholarship, and service. Submittals should make a case for the candidate’s achievements that reflects the integration of their accomplishments into a career arc. Teaching accomplishment should reflect a positive, stimulating, and nurturing influence upon students. Scholarly achievement may occur through various modes of production or dissemination, including, but not limited to, design-based work (including creative or critical practice) or other forms of scholarship that together produces a body of work that advances understanding of architecture and/or architectural education. Service work may occur within the context of a university or on a local, community, national, or international basis. Submittals should document achievements in service in terms of their impact on architectural education and/or practice.
Eligibility
Faculty members in ACSA full-member and candidate-member schools for a minimum of 10 years are eligible, as well as persons, faculty or not, whose activities have clearly been identified with those institutions. The achievements must have occurred during the period of appointment. No postmortem awards will be made.
Any faculty member, administrator, or student at an ACSA full-member and candidate-member school may nominate a candidate for the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award.
Nomination Documentation
All materials are to be submitted through the online system by the nominator or nominee; once the nomination is finalized all parties will receive a confirmation email. The résumé and supporting letters are best uploaded as PDF documents. The supporting material (portfolio) must not exceed a total of 20 pages and not exceed 20MB. All materials must be submitted by 11:59 PM, Pacific Time, on October 8, 2025, online at www.acsa-arch.org and the submitter will need to log into the ACSA website in order to submit.
Candidates should prepare a curated dossier to provide a full and rich picture of the candidate’s impact on students and architectural education. Each submission shall contain the following information:
- Candidate Name: Nomination Information, completed online during submission (www.acsa-arch.org);
- Biographical Statement: No more than 300-words. The statement should be a narrative introduction to the candidate and the candidate’s career.
- Letter of Nomination: A letter explaining the reasons for the nomination according to the established criteria, not to exceed one page (PDF format).
- Curriculum Vitae: Focusing on the achievements of the candidate, no more than 10 pages (PDF format).
- Supporting Letters: No more than three supporting letters from persons qualified to comment upon the significance of the specific achievements of the candidate. (No more than 1 page each, in separate PDF format.)
⁃ At least one letter must come from a student who has graduated from the candidate’s institution within the last three years.
⁃ If your achievements include collaborating partners, at least one of the supporting letters needs to be from a collaborator.
⁃ Guidance: It is suggested the support letters address the candidate’s impact. A letter from an individual from within the candidate’s institution is recommended in addition to a recent student. Individual letter of support can be from multiple authors (group letter). - Supporting Material: To provide evidence of the candidate’s achievements in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service. Nominees should situate the evidence of their achievements within the breadth of the architecture discipline. (Not to exceed a total of 20, 8.5” x 11” pages, in PDF format, no more than 20MB).
For each project referenced in your Supporting Material, you will need to document the following in your PDF submission.
Project Title:
Month/Year Completed:
Role of Nominee (in the project):
Collaborators & Funding Sources Expenses:
(Sample Text: 4 non-profit employees donated X amount of hours in the collaboration, 1 electrician paid for X amount of hours – their scope included outlets, running conduit etc.)
Student Compensation (Indicate whether students received credit or were financially compensated, within the guidelines of the institution):
(Sample Text: 3 students working as paid research assistants for X amount of hours, 15 students contributed to this project for a 5-credit studio course etc.)
Nominations for the Distinguished Professor Award will remain active in consideration for three years. Candidates will have the option to update information in subsequent years.
REQUIRED
DOCUMENTATION
Collaboration
ACSA seeks to empower faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts, and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture. ACSA leads architectural education and research by demonstrating the value of architectural education and research to practice and society, by advancing architectural pedagogy, and by serving as the voice of architectural education. ACSA’s core values include: Equity, Social Justice, Climate Action, Teaching,Learning, Research, Scholarship, and Creative Practice. Through the architecture educational awards program, ACSA demonstrates best practices.
ACSA understands work submitted to the awards programs is created through collaboration with students, organizations, firms, communities, and/or industry partners. ACSA advocates for fair labor practices in architecture education and awards submissions must represent the best practices in the field.
Therefore, award submissions must acknowledge all work performed in collaboration and must be properly credited. Submissions should include the information listed below including compensation for student work and/or firm support. This could be student earned course credit, firm work/resources, or financial contributions. The supporting material will need to clearly denote all collaborating parties involved, and their roles for each project.
Selection
A selection committee of five individuals, appointed by the ACSA president serving in the year in which the award shall be made and approved by the Board of Directors, shall review nominations and recommend winners. It is recommended that the selection committee include at least two past winners of the Distinguished Professor or Topaz Medallion award and one current member of the ACSA board.
A maximum of ten awards will be made, in any year. Winners will be presented with a medallion and certificate of merit and will have the opportunity to present their work. The recipient may use the title “ACSA Distinguished Professor” and “DPACSA” as a credential in perpetuity.
NEW
up to TEN AWARDS
2026 DP Selection Committee
Marleen Kay Davis
University of Tennessee
Jori Erdman
James Madison University
José Gámez
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Mohammad Gharipour
University of Maryland
Francisco J. Rodriguez-Suarez
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Notices
- All materials for nominations and submissions must be uploaded online in one complete package. Any incomplete documentation will not be accepted.
- Projects that have previously been recognized by ACSA will not be considered.
- A candidate may be considered for this award and the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion simultaneously. In such cases, the nomination must be submitted for each award separately, according to the conditions of required documentation.
- ACSA stands firmly against unpaid labor. In support of the American Institute of Architecture Students’ (AIAS) resolution on unpaid interns, ACSA does not allow partners or firms who do not pay their interns, in accordance with all applicable laws, to submit work for ACSA publications or to receive ACSA awards. (Intern refers to those individuals participating in AXP or equivalent required training and includes working students.) Nomination or submission to the ACSA Awards Program constitutes your understanding of this agreement.
- Current ACSA Board of Directors members may not submit nominating or supporting letters.
- Award winners are expected to register and attend the ACSA Annual Meeting.
- By submitting your project, you certify that you have granted ACSA permission to use all graphics included.
Edwin Hernández-Ventura
Awards and Competitions Manager
tel: 202-785-2324
email: ehernandez@acsa-arch.org
Eric W. Ellis
Sr. Director of Operations and Programs
tel: 202-785-2324
email: eellis@acsa-arch.org
Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. Our membership includes all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and 2- and 4-year programs. Together ACSA schools represent some 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
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