External honorific opportunities
NRC prestigious honorific awards
In the early 2000s, the National Research Council (NRC) — the operating arm of the National Academies — compiled lists of more than 1,500 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 now 1,325 currently active awards — and their classifications remain relevant in university rankings. A list of these active awards, with current requirements, application cycles, and other details, can be found in the spreadsheet linked below.
AAU prestigious honorific awards
The Association of American Universities (AAU) 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 176 currently active awards, fellowships, and memberships in honorary societies can be found below — along with application dates, requirements, and other details.
TARU prestigious honorific awards
The Center for Measuring University Performance considers a condensed set of faculty honorific awards in their annual Top American Research Universities (TARU) rankings. These awards are captured in the spreadsheet linked below; most, but not all, are also on the National Research Council list.
Prestigious honorific 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 more information about those awards.
Limited submission awards
Awards that have a limit on the number of faculty who can be nominated by the university are tracked by the Office of the Vice President for Research. Faculty who are interested in being nominated must first put their notice of intent into the portal to be considered for nomination. Click on the link below for more information about those awards.
Additional honorific 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 link below includes an extensive list of more than 17,000 national and international honorific awards that are not ranked by the NRC. This list is updated once a year and may not include all honorific awards available. If you know of an award or society that is not listed or would like a customized list based on your research, please contact the awards recognition specialist.
Virginia Tech honorific 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 external honorific awards. The link below provides a list of these honorific awards available to Virginia Tech faculty.
Connect with us
Curious about which of these awards might be most relevant to you? Contact Amanda Covey, our faculty awards and recognition specialist, at amturne3@vt.edu.