Each year, Rice honors members of the university community who have served students through outstanding teaching, dedication and service. Here are recipients of some of this year’s awards:
Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award
The junior and senior classes bestowed upon Sandra Parsons, assistant teaching professor of psychological sciences, Rice’s oldest teaching award: the Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award. Created in 1966, the award is funded by the Salgo-Noren Foundation.
Presidential Award for Mentoring
The Presidential Award for Mentoring went to Katherine Ensor, the Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics and director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s Urban Data Platform; Anthony Pinn, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, professor of religion and founding director of Rice’s Center for African and African American Studies; and Matteo Pasquali, the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a professor of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry. The award is given to faculty members who demonstrate a strong commitment to mentoring graduate or undergraduate students.
Charles Duncan Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement
Ashok Veeraraghavan, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and of computer science, and Reto Geiser, associate professor of architecture, received the Duncan Award, which is presented by Rice deans upon the recommendation of senior faculty. It honors tenure-track or tenured faculty members who have less than 10 years of experience.
Sophia Meyer Farb Prize for Teaching
Vida Yao, assistant professor of philosophy, received the Sophia Meyer Farb Prize for Teaching. Given by Phi Beta Kappa, this award goes to a nontenured assistant professor who demonstrates outstanding commitment to education in the liberal arts or sciences, as determined by student evaluations.
Sarah A. Burnett Teaching Prize in the Social Sciences
Craig Considine, lecturer in sociology, and Parsons have been awarded the annual Sarah A. Burnett Teaching Prize in the Social Sciences. Professor Emerita Sarah A. Burnett served on the psychology faculty for 40 years. During her time at Rice, she also served as dean of students and the vice president for student affairs. Her research focused on learning, memory and cognitive processes.
Sarofim Teaching Prize
Niki Clements, the Watt and Lilly Jackson Assistant Professor of Religon, was recognized with the Sarofim Teaching Prize. The award recognizes mentors of undergraduate theses or similar scale projects, graduate students’ directed readings or dissertations. The award recognizes this kind of one-on-one mentorship in the context of overall strong teaching in all the faculty member’s regular courses.
STC Teaching Award
Undergraduates Daniel Koh, Stephanie Scoville and Erik Yamada have been named winners of the Student-Taught Course (STC) Teaching Awards. The winner is selected by a committee of a current college magister, a former Brown Teaching Award winner and a member of the Center for Teaching Excellence’s undergraduate advisory board and is based on class observation, instructional materials and course evaluations.
Faculty Award for Excellence in University Service and Leadership
The recipient of the Faculty Award for Excellence in University Service and Leadership is Keith Cooper, professor of computer science and chair of the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics. This award is bestowed annually on a faculty member or members making significant and distinctive contributions to the mission of Rice through exceptional university service and leadership.
Faculty Award for Excellence in Professional Service and Leadership
Fred Oswald, professor of psychological sciences, is the recipient of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Professional Service and Leadership. This award is bestowed annually to a faculty member or members making significant contributions to the academic profession or to the wider community (local, national or international) through professional service and leadership.
Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching and Service
The Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching and Service was given to Kirsten Ostherr, professor of English. This award is bestowed periodically on a faculty member or members who fulfill the Rice academic ideal by exhibiting exemplary achievement in all aspects of faculty responsibilities: research, teaching and service.
Teaching Award for Excellence in Inquiry-Based Learning
Matthew Wettergreen, associate teaching professor at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, was chosen for the Teaching Award for Excellence in Inquiry-Based Learning. The award was established to bring attention to efforts across campus to fold inquiry and research into the curriculum; it recognizes faculty who demonstrate excellence in the use of inquiry-based learning methods in undergraduate teaching.
Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Student Support
David Mildebrath, a graduate student in computational and applied mathematics, has won the Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Student Support. The award honors a graduate student who excelled in providing support to students as a teaching assistant. Any work teaching assistants do with students in a course, whether during class, recitations or office hours, is considered student support.
Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Course Support
Matt Lamb, a graduate student in political science, is being recognized with the Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Course Support. The focus of this award is on substantive contributions to course design and delivery, such as contributions to the design of the syllabus, individual assignments, online tutorials or the delivery of various in-class lessons and activities.
Graduate Liberal Studies John Freeman Faculty Teaching Award and Faculty Mentoring Award
Christopher Johns-Krull, professor of physics and astronomy, is the recipient of the Graduate Liberal Studies John Freeman Faculty Mentoring Award. Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English, is the recipient of the Graduate Liberal Studies John Freeman Faculty Teaching Award. The annual awards recognize two outstanding GLS faculty who make a significant contribution to the program or in the service of its students. Awardees are outstanding faculty who exemplify the qualities of interdisciplinary, liberal teaching and who have participated significantly in teaching or advising students and/or have actively participated in other faculty services in the GLS program. Primary consideration will be the quality of the nominees’ teaching of interdisciplinary courses or advising of graduate liberal studies students.
School of Engineering Award for Excellence in Teaching
Rob Griffin, professor of civil and environmental engineering and senior associate dean for the Brown School of Engineering, is the winner of the School of Engineering Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognizes continued excellence in teaching and exemplary commitment to the education of undergraduate or graduate students.
Graduate Teaching Award for Independent Instruction
Clint Wilson, a graduate student in English, and alumna Christine Nittrouer ’19 received the Graduate Teaching Award for Independent Instruction, which honors graduate students for outstanding work teaching their own undergraduate courses.