Rainmaker Awards

The Office of Research & Economic Development, Campus Federal Credit Union, and the Council on Research have established the Rainmaker Awards, given each year to faculty who show outstanding research, scholarship, and creative activity for their respective ranks and discipline. The awards recognize both sustained and continuing work, as well as the impact that work has had on the faculty members, their department, and their academic community.

Nominations are solicited from faculty, departments, and colleges for the emerging, mid-career, and senior scholar awards.  For each award category, one award is given to a faculty member in the area of Arts, Humanities, Social, or Behavioral Sciences, and one to a faculty member in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics. Nominations are reviewed and prizes awarded by members of the Council on Research. Each award comes with a one-time cash stipend of $1000 and recipients are recognized at a reception usually held in the spring.

The call for nominations is made each year in the early Fall semester. 

 

List of Rainmakers

Eligibility

Nominees must be full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty at LSU. They should also be nominated for an appropriate award category based on the following criteria:

Emerging Scholar

Recognition of outstanding research/creative productivity and scholarship for a junior faculty member holding a tenure-track or tenured position at LSU. As of the deadline for nomination, no more than nine (9) years shall have passed since the completion of the terminal degree (defined as the most advanced degree offered in a given discipline, ordinarily required for a faculty position in that discipline).

Mid-Career Scholar

Recognition of a faculty member holding a tenure-track or tenured position at LSU who is exhibiting a sustained program of excellence, and has strong name recognition in his or her field. As of the deadline for nomination, no more than sixteen (16) years shall have passed since completion of the terminal degree (defined as the most advanced degree offered in a given discipline, ordinarily required for a faculty position in that discipline).

Senior Scholar

Recognition of a tenured faculty member at LSU who has exhibited a sustained program of excellence as measured by significant contributions to his or her field. The nominee’s record is expected to be comparable to the quality that is considered for the Distinguished Research Master award.

Review Criteria

Review criteria for high quality research, scholarship, and creative activities include, but are not limited to:

  • publication in a high impact journal(s); a highly cited work;
  • external awards; invited presentations at national and international meetings;
  • high journal publication productivity;
  • critically acclaimed book publication(s), performance(s), exhibits(s) or theatrical production(s);
  • high grant productivity; and,
  • for more senior candidates, outstanding citation records and high impact invited presentations at national and international meetings.

Nomination Materials

Rainmaker nominations must include: 

  • a nomination letter (3 pages max)
  • a support letter from the nominee's department chair/unit head (if the chair is not the nominator)
  • a current curriculum vita (5 pages max)
  • the names of three (3) references from whom a support letter will be requested

The acknowledgement and approval of each candidate’s Dean will be part of the review process and does not need to be provided in the nomination package.

Submitting Nominations

The Request for Nominations is published near the beginning of the Fall semester, with an anticipated submission deadline in late November. Specific information, including submission deadlines, required materials and submission processes can be found there.

Nominations are only accepted through the LSU Internal Grants & Competition Portal.

LSU Internal Grants & Competition Portal

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