Distinguished Professorships and Awards

Regents' Award for Superior Teaching

The Regents' Award for Superior Teaching was established on June 6, 1963 with the first awards presentation in the spring of 1964. Originally, the award was given to three individuals each year. In 1965, the policy was amended to provide a maximum of five and a minimum of three awards each year. In 1978, the awards were expanded to include superior accomplishment in any of the following: Teaching, Research and Creative Activity, Professional and University Service, with a maximum of nine awards in one year with the understanding the majority of the awards will be given for superior teaching. 

List of Awardees

Regents' Award for Superior Research and Creative/Scholarly Activity

The Regents' Award for Superior Teaching was established on June 6, 1963 with the first awards presentation in the spring of 1964. Originally, the award was given to three individuals each year. In 1965, the policy was amended to provide a maximum of five and a minimum of three awards each year. In 1978, the awards were expanded to include superior accomplishment in any of the following: Teaching, Research and Creative Activity, Professional and University Service, with a maximum of nine awards in one year with the understanding the majority of the awards will be given for superior teaching. 

List of Awardees

Regents' Award for Superior Professional and University Service and Public Outreach

The Regents' Award for Superior Teaching was established on June 6, 1963 with the first awards presentation in the spring of 1964. Originally, the award was given to three individuals each year. In 1965, the policy was amended to provide a maximum of five and a minimum of three awards each year. In 1978, the awards were expanded to include superior accomplishment in any of the following: Teaching, Research and Creative Activity, Professional and University Service, with a maximum of nine awards in one year with the understanding the majority of the awards will be given for superior teaching. 

List of Awardees

Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award

The Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award program was established to recognize excellence in college and university teaching. The award program is no longer available as funding was provided by their sponsoring foundations for a limited award period.

List of Awardees

University Distinguished Teaching Award (formerly Good Teaching Award)

The Good Teaching Awards Program was introduced by the Standard Oil (Indiana) Foundation in 1966. The purpose of the program is to recognize excellence in teaching performance at the undergraduate level and to provide an incentive to achieve that goal. The University of Oklahoma participated in the program since 1968. In 1973, the name of the foundation was changed to the AMOCO Foundation, Inc., and was changed to BP Amoco in the late 1990's. In 2003, the award was changed to the Good Teaching Award. In 2019, the award was renamed as the University Distinguished Teaching Award.

List of Awardees

Provost's Research Award

The Provost's Research Award was established in the late 1980's to recognize meritorious research. Two awards are given each year to full-time, regular faculty members; one each for junior (assistant professors) and senior (associate professors and full professors) faculty. The awards are given for a significant personal achievement of original research.

List of Awardees - Senior Faculty

List of Awardees - Junior Faculty

Provost's Teaching Award

The Provost's Teaching Award recognizes meritorious excellence in teaching. Two awards are given each year to full-time, regular faculty members; one award will be given to an early career faculty member and one to a seasoned/senior career faculty member. The awards are given for significant personal contributions to the quality, scope, and outcomes of teaching, learner assessment, and learner mentoring in the health professions, public health, or biomedical sciences.

List of Awardees - Seasoned Faculty

List of Awardees - Early Career Faculty

David L. Boren Professorship

The David L. Boren Professorship is one of the University of Oklahoma's highest honors, recognizing faculty who have made truly exceptional contributions to the mission of a public research university. To qualify for the Professorship, a faculty member must have consistently demonstrated outstanding teaching, research and creative activity, and leadership of service. The holders of this distinctive honor should represent the best of the OU spirit as it has come to be under the remarkable leadership of President David L. Boren - caring for students, advancing the frontiers of knowledge, and making a positive different in the world. The term of a David L. Boren Professorship is continuous until retirement.

List of Awardees

David Ross Boyd Professorship

The David Ross Boyd Professorship was approved by the Board of Regents on June 14, 1945 and is named for the first President of the University. The first appointments were effective June 14 1946. To qualify for a David Ross Boyd Professorship a faculty member must have consistently demonstrated outstanding teaching, guidance, and leadership for students in an academic discipline or in an interdisciplinary program within the University. When the professorship was first established, the policy provided that only two could be named in one year and the terms were for five years though the individuals could be reappointed. The appointments now are for life.

List of Awardees

George Lynn Cross Research Professorship

The Regents' Professorship was established on November 12, 1943 on action by the Board of Regents. The first four appointments were effective January 1, 1944. Upon his retirement from the University in 1968, the Regents named this professorship for George Lynn Cross. The criteria for selection provide to qualify for a George Lynn Cross Research Professorship a faculty member must have demonstrated outstanding leadership over a period of years in his or her field of learning or creative activity and have been recognized by peers for distinguished contributions to knowledge or distinguished creative work. The appointment is for life.

List of Awardees

Regents' Professorship

Recipients of distinguished professorships are deemed to have achieved unusual distinction in teaching and guidance of students, research, or service. To qualify for a Regents' Professorship, a faculty member must have rendered outstanding service to the University, to the academic community, or to an academic or professional discipline, through extraordinary achievement in academic administration or professional service. The appointment is for life. 

List of Awardees

Presidential Professorship

Presidential Professors are those faculty members who excel in all their professional activities and who relate to those activities to the students they teach and mentor. These professors inspire their students, mentor their undergraduate and/or graduate students in the process of research and creative activity within their discipline, and exemplify to their students (both past and present) and to their colleagues (both at OU and within their disciplines nationwide) the ideals of a scholar through their endeavors in teaching, research/creative activity, and service. The professorship is granted for a four-year term.

List of Awardees

Marcia Bennett OUHSC Leadership and Mentoring Award for Staff

This prestigious award was established by the Health Sciences Center Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost. It recognizes one staff member who emulates the leadership and mentorship of the former Vice Provost for Health Sciences, Dr. Marcia M. Bennett, who served the University for more than 40 years. This award was initiated to honor Dr. Bennett's legacy of leadership and mentoring, upon her retirement from the University in January 2020. 

List of Awardees