The College of Letters and Science has established a new prize to recognize and support faculty whose research, teaching and service exemplify the transformational intellectual and human value of the liberal arts and sciences.

For 2019-20, the Dean’s Prize for Distinguished Contributions to the Liberal Arts and Sciences will include a privately funded award of $10,000. All of the college’s tenured academic faculty members are eligible.

“The liberal arts and sciences are defined by curiosity and intellectual passion: the willingness and the demand that we ask ‘why,’ not just ‘what’ or ‘how,’” Dean Elizabeth Spiller said. “This question underlies basic science research, historical archival scholarship, and artistic expression that captures and reimagines how we experience the world.

“I am pleased that in the College of Letters and Science we are able to support our sustaining commitment to the transformational value of liberal arts and sciences education and curiosity-driven research.”

Music professor Pablo Ortiz is the chair of a faculty committee that will consider the nominations for the 2019-20 prize.

The nomination process comprises two phases. First, each nominator should submit a letter of up to 500 words describing the nominee’s contributions to the liberal arts and sciences. The committee will assess the letters, then invite a subset of the initial nominees to submit full applications. 

Letters of nomination should be submitted by email by 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2. The 2019-20 prize winner will be announced and recognized on May 7.

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