Distinguished Teaching Awards

(See names of all past recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Awards here.)

Each April, all members of the University community are invited to a special ceremony and reception to honor the recipients of the Morse-Alumni Award for Undergraduate Education and the University's Graduate-Professional Teaching Award. This occasion recognizes the significance of excellent teaching by inducting the faculty members into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Academy members provide important leadership to the University community, serving as mentors, advisers, and spokespersons for the University's mission.

This annual event honoring the University's best teaching professors for their contributions to undergraduate, graduate, and professional education. The includes comments from recipients, presentations of the awards, and a post-event reception.

Each spring, the University of Minnesota recognizes the important, elemental work of teaching by honoring faculty members who make the crucial connections that help U students develop into the next generation of scholars, researchers, practitioners, artists, and, of course, teachers.

The Morse-Alumni Award
Since 1965, the University has recognized exceptional undergraduate faculty for their contributions to student learning through classroom teaching, research, and creative activities; advising; academic program development; and educational leadership. The award is named for the late Horace T. Morse, who served as the first dean of the University’s General College from 1946–66 and who was a national leader in the field of undergraduate education.

The Award for Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education
In 1996, the University’s Senate Committee on Educational Policy realized that many exceptional faculty members were ineligible for the Morse-Alumni Award because their contributions to the University’s educational mission came primarily as teachers and mentors of graduate and professional students. Together with the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, they established a new award that would parallel the Morse-Alumni award in recognizing such contributions. Given for the first time in 1999, this award recognizes faculty members for excellence in instruction; instructional program development; intellectual distinction; advising and mentoring; and involvement of students in research, scholarship, and professional development.

Candidates for both awards are nominated through their colleges on all five campuses. Students, departments or other administrative units, student organizations or associations, or individual faculty members can initiate nominations. Candidate review committees made up of the student and faculty members of the Senate Committee on Educational Policy, previous award recipients, and a University of Minnesota Alumni Association representative choose recipients. The awards are administered by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost and funded by the Alumni Association and the University

The Distinguished Teaching Awards are sponsored by the Senate Committee on Educational Policy, the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.

See all past recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Awards here.

For more information on the Academy of Distinguished Teachers: http://www.adt.umn.edu/
For more information about the Morse Alumni and Graduate Professional Awards: http://www.scholarswalk.umn.edu/awards/aoce/