An award of $1,000 is presented annually by the President of the University at the June commencement exercises to a WWU Faculty member selected by the Research Advisory Committee and the President as having made an outstanding contribution to research and scholarship. This annual award, which began in 1983, was made possible through an endowment provided by former WWU president Paul J. Olscamp.

Criteria and procedures for the Paul J. Olscamp Research Award are as follows:

• Candidates must be associate or full professors who have been employed by WWU for at least two consecutive years.
• Nominations must be made by a colleague at WWU--e.g., another professor, a department chair, a dean.
• The research that prompts the nomination should have been conducted, or substantially undertaken, while the person was on the faculty at WWU.

Nomination Procedure:

• The nominator needs to submit only a letter of nomination and a recent vita of the nominee.
• The Research Advisory Committee will convene to review the preliminary nominations for an initial screening and to select those who are viable candidates. The nominator will then be asked to check with the candidate on her/his willingness to be nominated and to put together the necessary documentation. The initial screening by the RAC will save the effort of putting together the documentation for those who are not viable given the pool of nominees in that particular year.

Deadline:

• Nominations are usually due in the RSP the third Friday in February. See the Calendar of Internal Deadlines for the most recent date.

Past Recipients

An individual may receive this award only once (as with Excellence in Teaching awards).