The Pittman Scholar Program for junior faculty recognition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine

ABSTRACT

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine established the Pittman Scholars Program in 2015 to elevate scientific impact and to support the recruitment and retention of highly competitive junior faculty. The authors examined the impact of this program on research productivity and on faculty retention. The authors evaluated publications and extramural grant awards and available demographic data for the Pittman Scholars compared to all junior faculty in the Heersink School of Medicine. From 2015 to 2021, the program awarded a diverse group of 41 junior faculty members across the institution. For this cohort, ninety-four new extramural grants were awarded and 146 grant applications were submitted since the inception of the scholar award. Pittman Scholars published a total of 411 papers during the term of the award. The faculty retention rate of the scholars was 95%, comparable to that of all Heersink junior faculty, with 2 recipients being recruited to other institutions. The implementation of the Pittman Scholars Program has been an effective strategy to celebrate scientific impact and acknowledge junior faculty members as outstanding scientists at our institution. The Pittman Scholars award allows junior faculty to use funds for their research program, publications, collaborations, and career advancement. The Pittman Scholars are recognized at local, regional, and national levels for the work they are contributing to academic medicine. The program has served as an important pipeline faculty development program and an avenue for individual recognition for research-intensive faculty.

KEYWORDS:

• Junior faculty recognition
• scholar
• faculty development
• faculty productivity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge all the Pittman Scholar recipients as well as the family of Dr. James Pittman for their participation and support for this program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Institutional Review Board determined that this study did not constitute to human subjects research and therefore did not require review or approval.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.