Paul J. Olscamp Research Award

Named after the eleventh president of Western, the Paul J. Olscamp Research Award goes to a faculty member from either the College of Humanities and Social Sciences or the College of Science and Engineering in recognition of their impressive record of achievement in scholarship and research during their time at Western.

*Please Note: Only Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, or Professors are eligible for this award. (Instructors, Lecturers, Senior Instructors are not eligible. Please check the staff directory for faculty titles.)

Nominations for the 2026 Paul J. Olscamp Research Award are now CLOSED. Thank you to those that took the time to nominate a faculty member for this award!

Selection Criteria

  • Only Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, or Professors are eligible for this award. Tenure is not a requirement, but the candidate must be a tenure-track faculty member having completed at least three (3) full years of service at Western. Visiting faculty, non-tenure track faculty, and part-time faculty are not eligible.
  • No person shall receive this award more than once.
  • Only WWU faculty members, department chairs, and academic deans may nominate their faculty colleagues for a Scholarship/Research award. Nominees will be contacted and given instructions for submitting materials to the award committee.
  • This is a research award. Materials submitted should speak to the candidate’s research and scholarship abilities and include the following:
    • Current vita
    • Supporting research and scholarship materials from the candidate covering the last three (3) years, but no more than five (5) years.
    • The candidate may provide a summary comprising up to three (3) pages describing aspects of his/her/their research and scholarship not covered by the requested materials.
    • The candidate will solicit up to five (5) letters of support, submitted electronically to the Dean’s Office*. Letters should register the impact of the candidate’s research in his/her/their field and reasonably represent the candidate’s department or field.

Award/Recognition

The award recipient will be presented with a Western medallion award at the Celebration of Excellence Awards in May. This award also includes a payment of $2,500, made possible by the Western Washington University Foundation. (Please note: for each payment, the University also contributes approximately $1,553.66 for tax related deductibles plus benefits for a total expenditure of approximately $3,553 per award.)

Award Administration

College of Humanities and Social Sciences and College of Science and Engineering Dean’s Offices (rotating).

The 2026 award will be facilitated by the College of Science and Engineering. Please contact the CSE Dean's Office if you have questions about the Paul J. Olscamp Research Award.

Nomination Process

Nominations for the 2026 award are now CLOSED. WWU faculty members, department chairs, and academic deans could nominate their faculty colleagues for a Scholarship/Research award by the January 23, 2026 deadline.  Thank you to those that took time to nominate a colleague!

2026

Professor Howard-Snyder wearing a crisp collared shirt, navy jacket, and an award medallion

Dan Howard-Snyder - Philosophy

Professor of Philosophy Daniel Howard-Snyder earned a B.A. from Seattle Pacific University and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He is an author or editor of seven books, including “Faith and Faithfulness,” co-authored with Dan McKaughan, Boston College, and “The Power of Logic,” co-authored with Western colleagues Frances Howard-Snyder and Ryan Wasserman. He began at Western in spring 2001 and has since taught mainly logic, epistemology, pistology and philosophy of religion.

He has authored or co-authored over 90 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, entries, and critical reviews. He sits on the boards of five journals. He served on seven interdisciplinary grants including The Science of Intellectual Humility, The Nature and Value of Faith, and The Beliefless Spirituality Project: Philosophical Foundations and Scientific Explorations. On Western’s campus, he directed the public-facing Bellingham Lectures in Philosophy and Religion for 10 years.

He is grateful to students, colleagues, and administrators at Western for their support and encouragement over the years. As a Burkitt’s Lymphoma survivor of 25 years, he is especially grateful to hematologists like Professor Clint Spiegel, the recipient of the 2025 Olscamp Research Award, for their research in blood-related illnesses and for inspiring and educating their students to fulfill their health-related vocations.

Past Awardees

1 awardee(s) for this year

2025 Awardees

Dr. Clint Spiegel wearing a navy blazer and WWU award medallion

P. Clint Spiegel, Jr. - Chemistry

P. Clint Spiegel, Jr. is a professor of Biochemistry at Western, where his student-focused research has been to leverage biochemical and structural biological approaches to study the structure and function of proteins that impact human health and disease. He is internationally recognized as an expert in blood coagulation proteins and protein complexes related to hemophilia.

Clint’s research group has been largely supported by the National Institutes of Health, and they’ve been awarded over $2.5 million and published 30 peer-reviewed papers since joining WWU. Recently, he was selected as a “State of the Art” honored speaker at the annual meeting of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. Previously, Clint was selected for the Arlan Norman Award for Excellence in Student Mentoring and named a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar for his work mentoring over 90 undergraduate and 19 graduate research assistants.

Clint received his B.S. degree with honors in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and his Ph.D. in Biomolecular Structure and Design through the Biochemistry Department at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Before joining the faculty at WWU, he was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz.