The first annual Distinguished Columbia Faculty Awards have been presented to 10 arts and sciences professors for outstanding teaching and mentoring, as well as excellence in scholarship and University citizenship.The awards carry an annual prize of $25,000 for three years and were made possible by a $12 million donation from Trustee Gerry Lenfest ’58LAW. Honorees were selected by a committee of senior Columbia faculty members overseen by Nicholas Dirks, vice president for arts and sciences.
The recipients are particle physicist Janet Conrad, art historian Jonathan Crary, English lit expert Jenny Davidson, sociologist Gil Eyal, French department chair Pierre Force, African-American lit scholar Farah Jasmine Griffin, historian Matthew Jones, chemist James Leighton, mathematician Eric Urban, and classics chair Gareth Williams.
Lenfest has also pledged $22 million to the Earth Institute in the last two years, including $5 million to create a Center for Sustainable Energy, directed by Klaus Lackner, the Ewing-Worzel Professor of Geophysics.
