Aesculapius Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Medical Education

The Aesculapius Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Medical Education represents the highest teaching award offered to medical school faculty at Stony Brook in recognition of their teaching medical students, residents and or faculty. 

 
Eligibility 

All members of the faculty of the School of Medicine are eligible for Aesculapius Awards. Teaching may be of undergraduate, graduate, or professional students, as well as our house staff. The setting may be a lecture, laboratory, small group, or clinical.  Faculties of all academic ranks are eligible for nomination. Faculty at our close affiliates are eligible. Note: Past winners are not eligible. 

 

The following criteria should be fulfilled for a faculty member to become eligible for the award

  1.  Must be a faculty member at Stony Brook University School of Medicine for at least five years
  2. Must have received at least one departmental or other teaching award
  3. Must have evidence of an outstanding teaching record at the UGME, GME, or CME level (as evidenced by trainee/ peer/supervisor evaluations and letters of support)
  4. Must have evidence of academic involvement with medical students/residents
  5. Contributions to teaching activities may be in teaching, learner assessment, curriculum development, mentoring and advising or in educational leadership and administration
  6. Must be supported by two senior faculty members in his/her own department
 
Selection Criteria

Seven areas of educational excellence will be assessed for quantity, quality and impact. These domains include teaching, learner assessment, curricular development, advising and mentoring, educational leadership and administration, scholarly approach to education and educational scholarship. (Domains based on Simpson D, Fincher RE, Hafler JP et al. Advancing educators and education by defining the components of and evidence associated with educational scholarship. Med Educ 2007; 41(10):1002-1009 EPub 2007). 

Every domain is not weighted the same.  For this award, the highest weight is placed on a faculty member’s own teaching activities and their trainee evaluations. A scoring grid (see attached) is used for determining the relative ranks of all submitted complete nominations. After each committee member scores the nominations on the grid, a meeting of the award selection committee is held to discuss specifics and determine final outcomes.  

Supporting Information

A successful nomination package must include the following: A nomination letter, a total of three to five letters of support (from trainees, peers, supervisors), an educator portfolio or clear evidence of an outstanding teaching record with expertise in various facets of education (student evaluations, objective quantitative and qualitative assessments, comparative data, etc).

The letter of nomination should include the name and title of the nominator, the name, title, academic and campus affiliation of the nominee (Health Sciences Center, Nassau University Medical Center, Northport VA Medical Center, etc.) and a brief description (not more than five pages) of the nominee's teaching accomplishments, including reference to those courses or programs that the nominee developed or directs, and identification of other teaching awards or recognition. Additional appendices are optional.

If there are any questions regarding the process, the nominators are encouraged to consult with the current chair of the Aesculapius Committee.

Checklist before submission:
  • Nomination letter (five pages maximum five)
  • Three to five letters of support
  • Candidate’s CV- Two-page Biosketch
  • Candidate’s Educator Portfolio (five pages maximum)
  • Appendices as evidence of excellence as an educator (three pages maximum)
  • TOTAL not to exceed 20 pages
 
Supporting Information

Submitting a Nomination

All submissions must be completed electronically, preferably as a SINGLE PDF file. The file name should be the first initial last name of the nominee and the date of submissions (eg jdoe061708). If there are more than one set of files, please label them as above with an additional digit (eg jdoe061708-1, jdoe061708-2, etc)

Nominations will be accepted up to July 31, 2024. Awards will be presented at our Annual Faculty Awards Ceremony in Fall 2024.