Faculty, staff honored for excellence in teaching, mentoring, service

Each year Rice honors members of the Rice community who have served the students through outstanding teaching, dedication and service. Below are recipients of some of this year’s awards:

Dennis Huston

Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award

Rice’s junior and senior classes have named Dennis Huston, the Gladys Louise Fox Professor of English, a favorite professor, bestowing upon him Rice’s oldest teaching award: the Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award. Created in 1966, the award is funded by the Salgo-Noren Foundation.

Cindy Farach-Carson and Lydia Kavraki

Presidential Award for Mentoring

The 2016 Presidential Award for Mentoring went to Cindy Farach-Carson, the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Lydia Kavraki, the Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science and professor of bioengineering. The award is given to Rice faculty members who demonstrate a strong commitment to mentoring graduate or undergraduate students.

Stephan Link and Jesus Vassallo Fernandez

Charles Duncan Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement

Stephan Link, associate professor of chemistry and of electrical and computer engineering, and Jesus Vassallo Fernandez, assistant professor of architecture, shared the 2016 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

Philip Ernst

Philip Ernst, assistant professor of statistics, received the 2016 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.

Jenifer Bratter

Sarah A. Burnett Teaching Prize in the Social Sciences

Jenifer Bratter, associate professor of sociology, has been awarded the Sarah A. Burnett Teaching Prize in the Social Sciences, an annual prize given to an outstanding teacher in the School of Social Sciences.

Jane Grande-Allen and Christopher Jermaine

(T+R)2 Award, School of Engineering

Jane Grande-Allen, professor of bioengineering, and Christopher Jermaine, associate professor of computer science, are the 2016 recipients of the (T+R)2 Award. T+R stands for teaching and research, and the award honors outstanding work in both areas based upon research-based teaching methods, student evaluations and comments, peer input, research funding, impact of journal publications and contributions to the field.

Bo Kim

STC Teaching Award

McMurtry College senior Bo Kim has been named winner of the inaugural Student Taught Course (STC) Teaching Award. Rice began offering STCs through the residential colleges in 2006 to provide undergraduates a chance to teach fellow students about subjects in which they consider themselves to be an expert. The STC Teaching Award will be given every fall and spring semester to recognize the exceptional teachers of these courses. The winner is selected by a committee composed of a current college master, 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.