Scholarly and Creative Excellence Awards

​2026 Scholarly and Creative Excellence Award Recipients 

Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture

Dr. Yuhui Weng is an associate professor of forest quantitative management and forest genetics at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he has worked since 2016. He leads the East Texas Pine Plantation Research Project, a cooperative initiative with forest industries established in 1982.

Prior to joining SFA, Weng served as a forester in the Ontario Forest Research Institute and as a research forester with the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources in Canada. At SFA, his research focuses on developing quantitative tools for pine plantation management in the Western Gulf region and integrating forest genetics with environmental variation to enhance forest management practices.

Weng has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles in Science Citation Index journals and currently serves as an associate editor for Tree Genetics & Genomes and for Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.

College of Liberal and Applied Arts

Dr. Aaron Coy Moulton is an award-winning historian of dictatorial regimes, intelligence and transnational networks in the Western Hemisphere. In 2024, he worked under grants from the University of Southern California Libraries, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution Library & Archives, and the University of Oregon’s Special Collections and University Archives. Most recently, Moulton was a Mayers fellow at The Huntington Library and a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies with the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the University of California, Berkeley. He just completed a research fellowship with the Center for History and Culture of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast at Lamar University.

Moulton has published in multiple scholarly and public-facing outlets. This year, Cornell University Press published his book, “Caribbean Blood Pacts: Guatemala and the Cold War Struggle for Freedom.” The book reveals how exiles inspired by World War II sought to overthrow dictatorial regimes throughout the greater Caribbean. In response, though, those very dictators from the Dominican Republic to Nicaragua unleashed their own plots and propaganda to destroy their opponents and democracies. Soon, the United Fruit Company and British intelligence helped in the hopes of undermining the 1944-54 Guatemalan Revolution. Ultimately, these counterrevolutionary forces built the foundation of the U.S. government’s own operations under the Central Intelligence Agency that overthrew Guatemala’s democratic government.

College of Sciences and Mathematics 

Dr. Bidisha Sengupta is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Stephen F. Austin State University. Prior to joining SFA, she served on the faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, where she progressed from assistant professor to tenured associate professor. Her doctoral training in biophysical chemistry, combined with nearly nine years of postdoctoral research experience in India, Sweden and the United States, established a strong foundation for her interdisciplinary research program.

During her tenure at Tougaloo College, she secured competitive research funding as both principal investigator and co-PI from the National Science Foundation, along with multiple seed grants through the NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and the Mississippi Institutional Development Award Network of Biomedical Research Excellence program. At SFA, she has received funding from the Research and Creative Activity grant program, Center for Applied Research and Rural Innovation, and the Faculty Research Enhancement Grant program. She also was awarded a Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention, or STARs, grant to acquire a dynamic light scattering spectrometer, strengthening research infrastructure and capabilities.

Sengupta’s research integrates analytical chemistry, molecular spectroscopy, biophysical chemistry and computational modeling to investigate biomolecular structure and natural product-based therapeutics. Her work focuses on elucidating how small molecules interact with biologically significant targets, including G-quadruplex and i-motif DNA structures, protein aggregates, and cancer-related metabolic pathways. Her research program also extends to mammalian cell culture, microbial biofilm systems and silver nanoclusters, where she examines cellular responses, oxidative stress and the effects of environmental and chemical exposures, as well as the design and application of nanomaterials in biological systems. Her laboratory employs advanced analytical techniques, including high-performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, and circular dichroism, alongside molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations to bridge experimental and computational approaches. Her scholarly publications have received over 3,000 citations, reflecting the broad impact of her research in biophysical chemistry and biomolecular science.

Sengupta is deeply committed to mentoring student researchers. She has supervised more than 20 undergraduate researchers and multiple master’s students, many of whom have been accepted into competitive doctoral, medical, combined medical/doctoral, pharmacology and dental programs. Through her research, teaching and mentorship, she continues to advance interdisciplinary chemical and biomedical research while preparing students for careers in science and health professions.

James I. Perkins College of Education

Dr. Malcolm Todd Whitehead is a professor in Stephen F. Austin State University’s Department of Allied Health Studies. He is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and the American College of Sports Medicine as a Certified Exercise Physiologist.

Whitehead’s research is primarily student-driven and oriented toward the practical application of the principles of exercise and sport physiology to real-world settings. Answering interesting research questions is a process that he pursues with a great deal of passion.

Whitehead enjoys working on his own projects, collaborating with other professionals in scholarly endeavors and mentoring graduate and undergraduate students. 

Micky Elliott College of Fine Arts  

Dr. Ben Morris is a Texas-based composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Miami, master's degree at Rice University and Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder, all in music composition.

Morris' creative work and research is often inspired by his Norwegian heritage. He lived in Oslo, Norway, on a Fulbright Grant composing a work for extended big band and video and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to research the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. His debut album, "Pocket Guides," was released in June 2022 on Origin/OA2 Records and takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz and contemporary chamber music. The album garnered him two Downbeat Awards; an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award; a big band commission from New York Youth Symphony's First Music; and an invitation to perform with his quintet at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Also a versatile film, theatre and opera composer, Morris scored the documentary films "American River," which premiered at Montclair Film in 2021, and "Saving the Great Swamp: The Battle to Defeat the Jetport," which won best documentary at the 2017 New Jersey Film Festival. His projects with his librettist collaborator Laura Fuentes include “Las Auténticas” for the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative; “The Fall of Man and Other Tales,” a multimedia work for the ATLAS B2 Black Box; “Colorado Sky,” a shadow puppet opera in collaboration with Sohap Ensemble; and “The Rip Van Winkles,” a youth opera commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival.

Morris writes for unique ensembles that blur established genre expectations. He has collaborated with the American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Loop38, Jazz at Lincoln Center trombonist Vincent Gardner, unassisted fold, NOW Ensemble, Imani Winds, ~Nois, The Living Earth Show, Playground Ensemble and the NDR Big Band. He has been a composer fellow at music festivals and workshops including the Aspen Music Festival, the American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute, Red Note Festival, Sibelius Academy Creative Dialogue, New Music on the Point, the International Gugak Workshop in South Korea, highScore, Source Song Festival and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. His concert music has received accolades including an ASCAP Morton Gould Award and the International Society of Bassists Composition Contest Grand Prize. Morris has attended artist residencies at Yaddo, Helene Wurlitzer, I-Park, Brush Creek, Soaring Gardens, Visby and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center.

His works are published by Alias Press, an affiliated publisher of Theodore Presser. Outside composing and teaching, Morris enjoys traveling, hiking, reading and exploring museums with his partner, pianist Maggie Hinchliffe.

Nelson Rusche College of Business 

Dr. Suhyung Lee, who joined Stephen F. Austin State University in 2022, is an assistant professor in the Department of Business Communication and Legal Studies. He earned his doctoral degree in human resource development from the University of Minnesota and his master’s degree in HRD and bachelor’s degree in education and English education from Hanyang University in South Korea. He worked for eight years as a human resource manager at a large company in South Korea.  

Lee’s primary research goal is to examine how to manage and develop human resources to promote organizational performance. His main research agenda includes career and talent development, leadership, organizational behavior and development, strategic HR, training evaluation, and cultural diversity. Lee has continued conducting research and being involved in research activities in HRD and related disciplines, contributing to the development of theories and practice in the field, and adopting cutting-edge knowledge and practice in his HRD, business communication and analytics courses. 

He earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, an executive Master of Business Administration from Quantic School of Business and Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from The University of Alabama. A licensed attorney in Alabama, he owns a consulting business and is a franchise owner.

Non-Tenure Track Representative

Dr. Herbert M. Midgley II is a senior lecturer of music at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he has taught since 1999. His scholarly and creative work focuses on music composition, film production, music technology, student success and educational outreach. His work emphasizes steady production across multiple creative and scholarly areas.

He maintains a regular composition routine that produces a steady stream of new work. Since 1990, he has written a daily four-part composition to maintain technique in the common practice period and support larger projects. His work includes a symphony, large-scale compositions, chamber music, avant-garde piano pieces and electronic music. He also publishes a monthly series of classical guitar studies for performers and shares these lessons online to demonstrate compositional techniques for the instrument. In addition, he remains active as a contemporary musician, composing in rock, punk rock and folk-rock styles. His recent releases include the electronic tonalities album “Mutant Oscillator Machine,” along with earlier rock and electronic projects available on streaming platforms.

Midgley is also active in filmmaking. He writes, directs, edits and composes for his projects. His feature film, “The Rise of the Robots,” and short films, including the recent “The Rebel” and “Learn, Earn, Burn, and Concern,” represent ongoing work in film production and scoring. These films are distributed through festival screenings and online platforms, providing public access to his work.

He regularly presents at professional and public venues. His presentations at the Texas Music Educators Association annual convention include “Makerspace Retro: Reviving Older Music Technology” and “Lights, Camera, Learn! Creating Music Education Content.” He has also presented at the Lifelong Learning Conference, Comicpalooza and other conferences. Additional sessions include “Learning from Mistakes: Lessons from the Rock Song ‘Louie Louie’ for Student Resilience and Success” and “Rock and Roll Revolution: How the Rebel Beat Shaped Pop Culture and Sci-Fi.” These presentations focus on music technology, rock history, film scoring, filmmaking and student success, with an emphasis on practical application in teaching and creative work.

Midgley focuses on producing work and sharing it with both academic and community audiences. His creative and scholarly activity is built on making work accessible and understandable to a broad audience. His projects range from experimental music to narrative film, along with ongoing work in student success. The goal is to create work that connects with real audiences, where people can see it and respond to it.

Scholarly Excellence Award Recipients from Previous Years