Nominations for the 2012 recipient of Emory's Thomas Jefferson Award are being sought. The deadline is Friday, Feb. 17, by 5 p.m.

Presented each year at the Commencement ceremony in May, the award honors a member of the faculty or staff for significant service through personal activities, influence and leadership.

Dennis Liotta is chair of the 2012 Selection Committee for the award. Liotta, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry and executive director of the Emory Institute for Drug Discovery, was last year's Thomas Jefferson Award recipient.

Any University employee may make a nomination by sending an original letter of nomination and the nominee's CV or resume to Tom Jenkins, on behalf of Liotta and the selection committee.

They can be sent by email to thomas.jenkins@emory.edu or mailed to the Office of the Provost, Administration Building, Room 313A, 201 Dowman Drive, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. 30322. 

The original donor for the award, the Robert Earl McConnell Foundation, specified that the personal and professional qualities of the recipient should resemble those that Thomas Jefferson considered essential to the intellectual, social and political advancement of society.

More information about the award's history and a list of previous recipients.