Each Spring, Vanderbilt honors faculty excellence through three distinguished awards recognizing research, scholarship, and service to the university. Open to all faculty, these awards celebrate impactful contributions and provide an opportunity to highlight outstanding work across disciplines. Recipients are recognized at the Spring Faculty Assembly.
Explore each award to learn about eligibility, criteria, and nomination requirements. When you’re ready, follow the steps to prepare and submit a strong nomination.
Summary
The Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award honors one full-time faculty member for their distinctive contributions to understanding the problems of contemporary society. Created in honor of Chancellor Heard upon his retirement in 1982, the award is intended to encourage, recognize, and honor faculty members’ contributions to the analysis of and solution to contemporary societal problems. Contributions may take the form of teaching, writing, basic or applied research, and consultative or other forms of service.
Honored annually at the Spring Faculty Assembly, the recipient receives a cash award, an engraved silver tray, and official designation as the “Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor” for one year.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty are eligible, regardless of rank, school or college.
Nomination Process
Members of the faculty are invited to submit nominations to the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate Consultative Committee reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the Provost. The final selection is made by the Chancellor in consultation with the Provost.
Nominations will be accepted through InfoReady. Please contact Rachel Bond-Naglak (rachel.bond-naglak@vanderbilt.edu) with any questions related to the award process.
Summary
The Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching recognizes one faculty member annually for outstanding skill, leadership, and mentorship in the classroom. As one of only two undergraduate student-nominated teaching awards, this is one of the most meaningful honors a faculty member can receive at Vanderbilt.
Endowed by the Ingalls Foundation of Birmingham, Alabama, in 1965, the award is presented annually at the Spring Faculty Assembly.
Recipients receive a cash prize and commemorative pewter julep cup.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty may be nominated, regardless of subject area or class size. All active students may nominate faculty they learned from in the current or previous semesters.
Nomination Process
Students are invited to submit nominations during the second half of the Fall Semester via an online form shared each award season. Final selection is made by the Chancellor.
Summary
The Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award honors a faculty member, not just for a notable accomplishment, but for outstanding total contribution to the Vanderbilt community.
Established in 1963 in honor of Chancellor Harvie Branscomb, the award is funded with contributions by the faculty and appropriately honors one faculty member annually for embodying the full combination of talents and achievements that define the University’s ideals: creative scholarship, including accomplishment in the creative arts and artistic performances; stimulating and inspiring teaching that results in learning of the highest order; and service to students, colleagues, the University, and society at large.
Honored annually at the Spring Faculty Assembly, the recipient receives a cash award, an engraved silver tray, and official designation as the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor for one year.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty are eligible, regardless of rank, school or college. The award is made for total contribution, not specific accomplishments. Neither long service nor promise of future accomplishment should be prime factors in the selection.
Nomination Process
Members of the faculty are invited to submit nominations to the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate Consultative Committee reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the Provost. The final selection is made by the Chancellor in consultation with the Provost.
Nominations will be accepted through InfoReady. Please contact Rachel Bond-Naglak (rachel.bond-naglak@vanderbilt.edu) with any questions.
Summary
Established in 2024 by Provost C. Cybele Raver, the Faculty Innovation in Teaching Award (Instruction and Course Design) recognizes full-time faculty who model intellectual risk-taking for their students by effectively employing creative approaches in instruction and course design practices. Recipients exhibit teaching practices that challenge students to engage in unfamiliar ways of thinking and use creative approaches or incorporate new technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence) that advances and enhances student learning.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty are eligible, regardless of rank or school or college affiliation.
Nomination Process
All students (undergraduate, graduate, and professional) and faculty members are invited to submit nominations during the second half of the Fall semester via an online form or InfoReady.
Summary
The Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor Award honors faculty accomplishments that span multiple academic disciplines. Created to honor Chancellor Wyatt upon his retirement in 2000, the award is conferred on one full-time faculty member for interdisciplinary excellence in developing significant new knowledge through research or exemplary innovations in teaching.
Honored annually at the Spring Faculty Assembly, the recipient receives a cash award, an engraved silver tray, and carries the title Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor for one year.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty are eligible, regardless of rank or school or college affiliation.
Nomination Process
Members of the Faculty are invited to submit nominations to the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate Consultative Committee reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the Provost. The final selection is made by the Chancellor in consultation with the Provost.
Nominations will be accepted through InfoReady. Please contact Rachel Bond-Naglak (rachel.bond-naglak@vanderbilt.edu) with any questions related to the award process.
Summary
The Joseph A. Johnson, Jr., Distinguished Leadership Professor Award recognizes outstanding faculty leadership in advancing human understanding that promotes greater self-direction, opportunity, and belonging for all people.
In 1954, Joseph A. Johnson, Jr., became the first African American to receive a Vanderbilt degree by earning a bachelor of divinity. In 1958, he became the first African American to earn a doctoral degree. These pathbreaking achievements marked the first steps in a long life of fearless service and advocacy on behalf of any people who required it.
Established in 2016 by Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos, the award honors one faculty member annually for embodying the spirit of pioneering leadership, courage, and societal impact embodied by its namesake.
Awarded annually during the Spring Faculty Assembly, the recipient receives a cash award, an engraved silver tray, and the official designation as Joseph A. Johnson, Jr., Distinguished Leadership Professor for one year.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty members are eligible, regardless of rank or school or college affiliation.
Nomination Process
Members of the Faculty are invited to submit nominations to the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate Consultative Committee reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the Provost. The final selection is made by the Chancellor in consultation with the Provost.
Nominations will be accepted through InfoReady. Please contact Rachel Bond-Naglak (rachel.bond-naglak@vanderbilt.edu) with any questions related to the award process.
Summary
The Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching is a student-nominated award that recognizes one faculty member for outstanding teaching, be it in the classroom, the lab, in the field, or abroad.
Established by the Board of Trust in 1964 and supported by Living Endowment funds contributed by alumni, the Madison Sarratt Prize is just one of two student-nominated teaching awards, making it one of the most meaningful honors a faculty member can receive at Vanderbilt.
Each recipient receives a cash prize and an engraved pewter Julep Cup.
Eligibility
All faculty may be nominated, regardless of subject area or class size. All active students may nominate faculty they learned from in the current or previous semesters.
Nomination Process
Students are invited to submit nominations during the second half of the Fall Semester via an online form shared each award season. Final selection is made by the Chancellor.
Summary
Established by the Nashville Vanderbilt Club in 1963, the Chancellor’s Cup is given annually to a faculty member engaged in undergraduate teaching for “the greatest contribution outside the classroom to undergraduate student-faculty relationships in the recent past.”
The Chancellor’s Cup is presented by Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and the President of the Nashville Vanderbilt Club during a surprise classroom presentation. The award consists of a cash prize contributed by the Club, an engraved pewter julep cup, and one year’s custody of a silver Tiffany bowl bearing the names of all recipients since 1963.
Eligibility
The Chancellor’s Cup may be awarded to full-time faculty in all schools who are actively engaged in undergraduate teaching.
Nomination Process
Nominations are submitted by deans (or their designee) of the undergraduate schools.
Summary
In recognition of Vanderbilt’s commitment to developing students inside and outside the classroom, the Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award was established in 2023 by Provost C. Cybele Raver to honor outstanding faculty contributions in the form of relational leadership and development.
Presented annually at the Spring Faculty Assembly, each recipient receives a cash prize and an engraved pewter Julep Cup.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty who work in support of either an Immersion Vanderbilt project or an undergraduate research opportunity are eligible for nomination.
Nomination Process
Students are asked to nominate a faculty mentor in support of either an Immersion Vanderbilt project or an undergraduate research opportunity, and nominations include details about the faculty mentor’s capability and support that go beyond the standard faculty advisor role.
Final selections for both awards are made by the Chancellor on the basis of nominations made online by undergraduates of all schools and colleges.
Please contact the Office of Faculty Development (facultydevelopment@vanderbilt.edu) with any questions related to the award process.
Summary
In recognition of Vanderbilt’s commitment to developing students inside and outside the classroom, the Excellence in Immersion Mentoring Award was established in 2023 by Provost C. Cybele Raver to honor outstanding faculty contributions in the form of relational leadership and development during an Immersion Vanderbilt program.
Presented annually at the Spring Faculty Assembly, each recipient receives a cash prize and an engraved pewter Julep Cup.
Eligibility
All full-time faculty who work in support of an Immersion Vanderbilt project are eligible for nomination.
Nomination Process
Students are invited annually to nominate a faculty mentor in support of an Immersion Vanderbilt project. Nominations are made via an online form and should include details about the faculty mentor’s capability and support that go beyond the standard faculty advisor role.
Final selection is made by the Chancellor on the basis of nominations made online by undergraduates of all schools and colleges.
Please contact the Office of Faculty Development (facultydevelopment@vanderbilt.edu) with any questions related to the award process.