Faculty Awards

The Statistics Department Award for Excellence in Instruction recognizes consistently outstanding instruction by a faculty member of the Statistics department. The award takes a holistic approach to understand how faculty members facilitate learning across undergraduate and graduate-level courses. The award is given annually to one faculty member who has done exemplary teaching.

Prior winners of the Excellence in Instruction award must wait five years before being reconsidered.

Previous Recipients

Karle Flanagan (2023)
Alex Stepanov (2023)
Albert Yu (2024)
Alexandra Chronopoulou (2025)
Dave Zhao (2025)

Evaluation Criteria

Nominations will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Sustained excellence in teaching inside and outside of the classroom.
2. Innovative approaches to teaching that incite intellectual curiosity
3. An overall positive impact on student learning leading to a life-long desire for learning.
4. Other contributions to improve undergraduate and/or graduate instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: creating inclusive and supportive learning environments; practicing active learning; increasing global and multicultural understanding; improving access and equity; amplifying student portfolios; developing courses and curricula; mentoring graduate teaching assistants; leading workshops on pedagogy; advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning; or making other multidimensional contributions beyond the classroom.

Nomination

An award nomination may be submitted on a perpetual basis by students, faculty members, administrators, or alumni. Each nomination should be submitted to the departmental selection committee via a Teaching Award Nomination form. The nomination must provide evidence satisfying at least one of the elements of the Evaluation Criteria described above. Submitted nominations will only be considered in the year of submission up to the Mid-November deadline. Any nominations sent after the deadline will be considered for next year’s award.

Eligibility

To be eligible for this award, candidates must:

• Be a faculty member in the Department of Statistics during the previous academic year with at least a 25% appointment.

• Have at least 4 semesters in residence as a faculty member within Statistics department at the time of nomination without counting the current semester.
• Taught at least 4 STAT courses or courses cross-listed as STAT courses offered by the Statistics department as a faculty member. They need not be distinct course numbers.
• Have not won this award in the previous 5 academic years.

Award

The winner will be announced at a departmental picnic (if planned) or alternatively at the Bohrer Workshop and will be awarded with:

• a one-time contribution of $2,000 to the discretionary spending account of the winner. This contribution will be processed by the end of the academic year upon final selection of awardees.
• a departmental nomination to the appropriate LAS college award for teaching if eligible (Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education for tenure-track faculty or Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Instructional Staff for specialized faculty)
• a personal small trophy or plaque
• a name plate will be added to a perpetual plaque to be displayed by the department

Selection Committee Composition and Role

The selection committee will be an ad hoc committee chosen by the Executive Committee that includes the winners of the previous three cycles and a student representative from each of the BS, MS and PhD programs. The selection committee will consider the contents of the initial nominations along with the departmentally available ICES scores. By majority vote of the committee, the winner of the annual award will be decided.

Deadlines:

Mid-November: Deadline for nominations to the department selection committee.

Any nominations received after the Mid-November deadline will be considered for the next year’s teaching award.

Early December: Decision on faculty award winner by selection committee. Relevant 2023 College/Campus Deadlines

January 6, 2023 5pm: Deadline for nominations from departments to the college. February 1, 2023: Deadline for college nominations to the campus

Solicitation Policy

The nomination form will be open year-round. The Department will have a process in place to solicit nominations at the end of a semester.

Overview

Eligibility requirements, criteria, and nomination information for each award are outlined in the links below. The campus selection process is overseen by the Teaching Advancement Board, and is advisory to the Provost. Recipient(s) and their nominator(s) will be notified by early March. Awards are presented at the annual Celebration of Teaching Excellence event.

Awards

• Excellence in Graduate & Professional Teaching
• Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring
• Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research
• Excellence in Online Teaching
• Excellence in Undergraduate Advising
• Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

See here for more details.