Outstanding Assistant Professor Award

Nominations will be sought for the Outstanding Assistant Professor Award. Nominees must be on the tenure-track in the rank of assistant professor, have recently gone through mid-tenure review, and have performed at an exceptional level in teaching and/or research. Nominations should consist of:

1. Letter of nomination from the department head describing the nominee’s contributions in teaching and/or research and summary of the mid-tenure review results/recommendations.
2. Current curriculum vitae of the nominee.

Awardees receive a $1,000 cash prize. Past recipients are not eligible for this award.

Current recipients

Hande Küçük McGinty Computer Science McGinty leads an interdisciplinary research program focused on knowledge graphs, explainable AI and trustworthy computing, with applications spanning food systems, health informatics and agriculture. She has secured competitive funding from the NSF, FDA, NIH, Department of Defense and internal K-State programs. In the classroom, McGinty has developed two interdisciplinary graduate courses — Food Informatics and Concordant Systems for Knowledge Engineering — now integrated into the Urban Food Systems certificate program

Andrew Sneed Architectural Engineering and Construction Science Sneed’s teaching excellence is evident through his dedication to student success and innovative instructional methods. His courses consistently receive high evaluations from students, reflecting his ability to engage and inspire them. Sneed’s commitment to student learning is further demonstrated by his role as an advisor for several student competition teams, including the ASHRAE Student Competition Team and the Mechanical Contractors Association of America student competition team, where his guidance has led to notable achievements such as second place in the ASHRAE System Selection competition and top 10 merit awards in the MCAA competition

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