Outstanding teachers aren’t hard to find at the University of Oregon. What can be hard is deciding which ones are among the finest.
That job is taken on each year when the university looks to recognize the best of the best, the teachers who are at the head of the class in more ways than one. These faculty members embrace the UO’s quest for innovation. They stretch beyond the limit. They answer “what if” with “let’s do it.”
Teaching is central to the university’s mission, and more than 150 faculty members have been honored for their contributions to the art and science of conveying knowledge in a line that goes back to 1957. That’s when the first Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching was presented. The Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching was added in 1985, and the Thomas F. Herman Award for Excellence in Pedagogy was added just last year.
Recipients are chosen by a committee made up of past award winners. In a university tradition, awards are delivered in surprise visits by the university president to each faculty member’s classroom. Recipients were honored at a joint reception with Research and Innovation on May 28.
More information about the awards process is available here, and a list of past award winners is here.
Interim President Scott Coltrane, the Office of Academic Affairs and the selection committee invite the entire campus community to congratulate this year’s Distinguished Teaching Award honorees:
