Award Descriptions
George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching and George R. Brown Awards for Superior Teaching
The George R. Brown Teaching Awards honors outstanding faculty as determined by the votes of alumni. All current faculty members are eligible except immediate past winners and lifetime honorary recipients. Alumni are asked to rank in order their top five faculty and only their top five faculty. The Committee on Teaching reviews the data and determines nine superior winners and one excellence winner.
Nicolas Salgo Outstanding Teaching Award
The Nicolas Salgo Outstanding Teaching Award is Rice’s oldest teaching award. It was created in 1966 and is funded by the Salgo-Noren Foundation. Each year, voting is open to the junior and senior classes. The faculty member with the most votes is awarded the Salgo award.
Trenton W. Wann Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship
The Trenton W. Wann Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship recognizes faculty who encourage undergraduate students to think critically and deeply beyond the subject matter, and whose classroom teaching and or mentorship methodology promote the development of life-long learners, so students can be thinkers for life, navigating knowledge on their own.
Charles W. Duncan, Jr. Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty
The Duncan Award was established in 1998 in honor of Charles Duncan, former chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees, and is presented each year to a full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty member in recognition of outstanding performance in the areas of both teaching and scholarship.
Sophia Meyer Farb Prize for Teaching (Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award)
Each year, the Rice chapter (Beta of Texas) of the national Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society recognizes a nontenured assistant professor or assistant teaching professor for outstanding teaching performance. An ad hoc committee of the general membership selects the winner after a review of the student evaluations of all eligible faculty, and the winner is invited to give a short speech at the spring induction ceremony. The award also includes an honorarium supported by the Sophia M. Farb Family Phi Beta Kappa Fund. The award was established in the 1970s by Rice Alumnus Aubrey Farb ’42.
Jack Gill Innovation and Entrepreneurship Excellence Award
The Jack Gill Innovation and Entrepreneurship Excellence Award honors the co-founder of Vanguard Ventures and GOOSE Capital and retired professor in the practice at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business, where he launched the Ignite Entrepreneurship Silicon Valley Trek. This award will be presented annually to a full-time faculty member in recognition of the development of research leading to technology that can be commercialized and has a significant impact on society.
Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Excellence
The Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Excellence is awarded every other year to no more than two senior faculty members who have made substantial and sustained contributions in research, scholarship and/or creative works. Such contributions will have garnered extraordinary public and/or professional accolades beyond the norm. This award is for the body of work and the impact the individual has had on a field. It is created to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of a senior faculty member’s career, where the nominee’s distinguished work has had enduring importance and profound impact.
Provost's Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement
The Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award annual reflects on the preceding five years and honors up to two faculty members who have made exceptional contributions in research, scholarship, and/or creative works during that period.
Provost's Award for Outstanding Early-Career Achievement
The Outstanding Early-Career Achievement Award annually recognizes and supports up to two faculty members who are within 10 years of their initial faculty appointment. Awardees' contributions in research, scholarship, and/or creative works have garnered public and/or professional accolades. The award celebrates those achievements and anticipates future excellence.
Provost's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Advisor
The Outstanding Doctoral Advisor Award honors a faculty member's mentorship of doctoral students who completed all degree requirements in the last 10 years. Emphasis is placed on the career paths students take, the professor's placement of students, and the professor's influence as an advisor of both their own students and the students in the broader degree program.
Rice University Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service
This award is bestowed periodically on a faculty member who fulfills the Rice academic ideal by exhibiting exemplary achievement in all aspects of faculty responsibilities - research, teaching, and service.
Rice University Faculty Award for Excellence in Professional Service and Leadership
This award is bestowed annually on a faculty member who has made significant contributions to the academic profession or to the wider community (local, national, or international) through professional service and leadership.
Rice University Faculty Award for Excellence in University Service and Leadership
This award is bestowed annually on a faculty member who has made significant and distinctive contributions to the mission of Rice University through exceptional university service and leadership.
Presidential Award for Mentoring
The Presidential Mentoring Award was established to recognize faculty members with outstanding contributions to the mentoring of Rice students. An emphasis is placed on mentoring graduate students and in particular those who are members of traditionally underrepresented groups.
Marjorie Corcoran Award
This award is in honor of Dr. Corcoran and her many contributions to science, to women and minorities, and to Rice. It is given annually to a Rice faculty member who has made major contributions to the advancement of women or underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, either in support of students at Rice or through local, state or national programs, with a particular commitment to engaged mentoring.
Award for Excellence in Teaching in the School of Engineering and Computing
The Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes continuing excellence in teaching and exemplary commitment to the education of undergraduate or graduate students within the School of Engineering and Computing.
Sarofim Professor for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities
The Allison Sarofim Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities originated in the early 1990s. The award recognizes a kind of teaching that is important but seldom recognized: 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. The award is open to any professorial rank.
Award for Outstanding Teaching in the School of Natural Sciences
The Outstanding Teaching Award recognizes excellence in teaching and outstanding commitment to the education of students in the School of Natural Sciences.
Sarah A. Burnett Teaching Prize in the Social Sciences
The Sarah A. Burnett Teaching Prize in Social Sciences is awarded to the faculty member(s) with the highest teaching scores in the previous academic year. The faculty member must have taught at least two undergraduate courses with a minimum of 15 students, with at least one being a lecture course.
Graduate Liberal Studies John Freeman Faculty Teaching Award and Graduate Liberal Studies John Freeman Faculty Mentoring Award
The purpose of the Graduate Liberal Studies John Freeman Faculty Teaching and Faculty Mentoring Awards is to annually recognize two outstanding GLS faculty who make significant contributions to the program or in the service of its students. Awardees exemplify the qualities of interdisciplinary liberal arts teaching and have participated significantly in teaching or advising graduate liberal studies students.
Graduate Teaching Awards
Developed by the CTE, the Graduate Teaching Awards recognize graduate students who excelled at supporting undergraduate teaching at Rice as instructors of record and teaching assistants. Each year, four winners are selected by committees composed of CTE graduate liaisons, CTE graduate fellows, and CTE faculty fellows in the following categories: independent instruction, course support and student support. The winners are selected based on their teaching philosophy, use of research-based methods and contribution to student learning.
Student-Taught Courses Teaching Award
The Student-Taught Courses Teaching Awards recognize the exceptional undergraduate instructors of student-taught courses at Rice. Winners are selected by a committee composed of CTE faculty fellows based on a review of instructional materials and student evaluations.