Awarded to a senior faculty member that has made substantial and sustained contributions in research, scholarship and/or creative works. Such contributions will have garnered extraordinary public and/or professional accolades beyond the norm. This award is for the body of work and the impact the individual has had on a field. It is created to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of a senior faculty member’s career, where the nominee’s distinguished work has had enduring importance and profound impact. While the primary focus for the award is on one’s career achievements, the influence that the faculty has had on a field through the scholarship of the nominee’s students will also be considered. Nominators should include both qualitative and quantifiable measures such as publications, citations, intellectual property, commercialized products, major commissions of creative works, significant research collaborations or other indications of the nominee’s potential for widespread influence, either within a specific field or throughout the community at large. Given the exceptional nature of this award, there will be up to two awardees every other year. The prize is $10,000, of which the full amount is for the recipient's personal use. Recipients are ineligible if having previously won this award.

Eligibility: Full professors who have been at Rice for at least 5 years and who are more than 20 years past the awarding of a terminal degree. Nominations can be made here.

2024: Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Bioengineering; Eduardo Salas, Psychological Sciences