External honorific opportunities

Prestigious and highly prestigious awards

In the early 2000s, the National Research Council — the operating arm of the National Academies — compiled lists of distinguished scholarly awards across the arts and humanities, physical sciences and engineering, social sciences, and life sciences, and designated each one as "prestigious" or "highly prestigious." While the National Research Council no longer maintains these lists, the awards — now more than 1,500 — and their classifications remain relevant in university rankings.

A list of these awards, with current requirements, application cycles, and other details, can be found in the spreadsheet linked below. 

The Association of American Universities ranks universities by collecting the number of faculty members, by institution, receiving awards, fellowships, and memberships from the National Research Council list of "highly prestigious" awards. 

This list of awards, fellowships, and memberships in honorary societies can be found below, sorted by research areas — humanities and social sciences, physical and engineering sciences, and life sciences — along with application dates, requirements, and other details.

The Center for Measuring University Performance considers a condensed set of faculty honorific awards in their annual Top American Research Universities rankings. These awards are captured in the spreadsheet linked below; most, but not all, are also on the National Research Council list.   

Fellowships and grants  

Certain fellowships and grants that carry research funding are also designated as "prestigious" or "highly prestigious" by the National Research Council. Click the link below for a page with more information about those awards. 

Additional awards

There are thousands of honorific awards offered by foundations, professional organizations, and other groups. Many of them, while not directly accounted for in university rankings, can be valuable stepping stones towards awards that are. The spreadsheet below includes an extensive list of more than 17,000 national and international honorific awards. 

Virginia Tech awards

There are many honorific awards offered at Virginia Tech that faculty can be nominated for. Many of them, while not directly accounted for in the university rankings, can be valuable stepping stones towards awards that are. The link below provides a list of these honorific awards not found on the other lists.