Morgan Chia-Wen Sze and Bobbi Josephine Hernandez Distinguished Teaching Prize

The Morgan Chia-Wen Sze and Bobbi Josephine Hernandez Distinguished Teaching Prize will be awarded to recognize professorial faculty for excellence in teaching, and will be awarded alternately over a three-year cycle to faculty in the humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences and mathematics.  The donors would like to encourage all award recipients to use a portion of the award to travel anywhere in the world of interest to them and through that travel “to bring the world back to Cornell”.  

Eligibility

Eligible Title:

Professorial faculty

Criteria:

The prize is awarded to recognize faculty for excellence in teaching and will be awarded alternately over a three-year cycle to faculty in the humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences and mathematics. The award recipient will be encouraged to use a portion of the award to travel anywhere in the world of interest to them and, through that travel, “bring the world back to Cornell.” 

Available Awards:

One award - $33,330

Rotation of Awards:  

2026: Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Programs
2027: Humanities & Arts
2028: Natural Sciences & Math

Nomination Process

The 2026 nomination submission deadline is Friday, March 20

Required nomination materials:

  1. Chair’s nomination letter, which should include a brief summary of teaching evaluation data
  2. Candidate’s CV
  3. List of all courses taught in the past 5 years
  4. Letters of support from students (maximum of 5)

All materials in the nomination package should be submitted as a single PDF titled lastname_DEPARTMENT_sze-hernandez

Email submission as a pdf attachment to Morgan_.3gz9gadkcew0nobn@u.box.com

Recipients

2024-25

  • Marcelo Aguiar, mathematics

2023-24

  • Nick Admussen, Asian studies

2022-23

  • Amy Krosch, psychology

2021-22

  • Kyle Lancaster, chemistry and chemical biology

2020-21

  • David Smith, psychology
  • Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, literatures in English

2018-19

  • Tara Holm, mathematics

2017-18

  • Amy Villarejo, performing and media arts, comparative literature, and feminist, gender and sexuality studies
  • Lydia Fakundiny, English