From left: Dr. Mohammad Saquib, Dr. Alex Piquero, Dr. Rebecca Files, Dr. Randall Lehmann and Dr. Jason Slinker were recently honored with UT System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Awards. Not pictured is fellow winner Dr. Michael Baron.
Six UT Dallas faculty members were recognized last month as top educators in The University of Texas System.
They each earned a 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award along with 90 fellow faculty members from across the UT System’s 15 academic and health institutions.
The UT Dallas recipients are: Dr. Michael Baron, professor of mathematical sciences; Dr. Rebecca Files, assistant professor of accounting; Dr. Randall E. Lehmann, senior lecturer in electrical engineering; Dr. Alex Piquero, Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology; Dr. Mohammad Saquib, professor of electrical engineering; and Dr. Jason Slinker, assistant professor of physics.
All of the award recipients from across the state received $25,000 and were honored at a ceremony last month.
Read more about each recipient:
Dr. Michael Baron
Dr. Rebecca Files
Dr. Randall Lehmann
Dr. Alex Piquero
Dr. Mohammad Saquib
Dr. Jason Slinker
The awards are the top teaching prizes in the UT System, and among the largest financial teaching award programs in the country.
“We are proud that these awards support and promote a culture of teaching excellence, especially in undergraduate programs, at all our campuses systemwide,” said Regents Vice Chairman Steven Hicks, chair of the board’s Academic Affairs Committee. “The teachers we are honoring are truly the best of the best.”
The regents have awarded nearly $13.4 million since 2008, when the program was created to recognize faculty members who deliver the highest quality of instruction in the classroom, the laboratory, the field or online.
The award recognizes tenured, tenure-track and instructional faculty for their outstanding teaching, mentoring, and their personal commitment to students and the learning process as well as motivating students in the classroom.
Candidates are vetted by their colleagues, students and UT presidents before advancing to competition at the System level.
In their evaluations of a candidate’s teaching performance, members of the review panel consider a range of activities and criteria, including classroom expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.
“Our excellence in teaching faculty is a critical part of the System’s vision of an institution of the first class,” UT System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa said. “These awards are a reflection of the regents placing the highest priority on undergraduate, graduate and professional teaching excellence systemwide.”