Psychology Professor Recognized by SEC for Research, Teaching

The SEC recognizes one faculty member annually from each of its member institutions having outstanding records in research and scholarship.

"Dr. Sufka exemplifies the highest ideals of research and teaching that the SEC Faculty Achievement Award represents," Chancellor Glenn Boyce said. "Throughout his more than 30 years at the university, he has demonstrated extraordinary dedication to both research excellence and student success.

"His integrity, commitment to scholarship and profound impact on our campus community make him the perfect embodiment of this award."

The university honored Sufka as a distinguished professor of psychology and pharmacology in 2022. He is also a research professor in the School of Pharmacy's Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who has published more than 90 articles and chapters about on neuroscience, pharmacology and philosophy of mind.

"I am deeply honored to be selected from among the many outstanding UM faculty for this recognition," Sufka said. "I love that the Southeastern Conference promotes the importance of academic excellence across the 16 institutions with this and other award recognitions."

Sufka's research focus is the development, validation and use of animal models to help develop new drugs for chronic pain, drug abuse and stress disorders. He and his team have developed a new compound derived from cannabis that holds promise to help treat neuropathic pain suffered by cancer patients and recent work suggests it may treat substance abuse disorders.

He holds seven U.S. patents based on his research discoveries.

What inspires Sufka in all his endeavors is the influence of his own teachers.

"Teachers can have such a profound influence on students, and I am no different," he said. "I had two outstanding mentors in professors Ronald Peters and Richard Hughes of Iowa State University."

Those two professors nurtured Sufka's interests in studying the brain and were role models when he started his career. And like Peters and Hughes, Sufka has influenced his own students by having an open-door policy.

"I've always been of the mind that if you put student needs at the forefront, all the rest sorts itself out," he said.

In 2011, Sufka compiled things he learned from students, colleagues and the science of teaching into a student-friendly book titled "The A Game: Nine Steps to Better Grades." More than 150 universities – including Ole Miss – give a copy of this resource to their entering students because it provides strategies and skills to master course material.

He also helps influence student and faculty relationships as director of the Stamps Impact Prize, which supports student-initiated projects mentored by faculty. Projects range from creative work and scholarly research to community service efforts that touch the campus, local and global communities.

"It has allowed me to foster meaningful faculty-student relationships through financial support of a broad range of incredible student creativity leading to exceptional undergraduate experiences," he said.

Sufka's influence on students and faculty is far-reaching, fellow psychology professor Todd Smitherman said. Years after completing his courses, students send Sufka letters and emails thanking him for his impact on their careers.

"When we taught together, it was both an honor and incredible learning experience to teach alongside him and to be mentored by him both in and out of the classroom," Smitherman said.

For his contributions to science, the Iowa State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences awarded Sufka its 2021 John V. Atanasoff Discovery Award. He also received Mississippi's CASE-Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year award in 2014.

The American Psychological Association awarded him a Presidential Citation in 2000 for his work to reform undergraduate psychology curricula nationwide.

Sufka joined the Ole Miss faculty in 1992 after earning his doctorate in physiological psychology from Iowa State University. He has received the university's 1996 Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teaching Award, the 2005 UM Faculty Achievement Award and the 2006 Thomas F. Frist Student Service Award.

"I am grateful UM gave me a chance to start my teaching and research career here," he said. "It has been a great joy to be on this journey with the students who have passed through this campus.

"Ole Miss was a good fit well over 30 years ago and remains so today."

The conference will select one of the institutional honorees as its Professor of the Year on March 24.

Top: Ken Sufka, distinguished professor of psychology and pharmacology, talks to students during a psychology class at Ole Miss. Sufka is being honored for his teaching, research and service in the Southeastern Conference's Faculty Achievement Award program. Photo by Nathan Latil/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services