The University of Colorado Boulder boasts of its many faculties who have gained national and international prominence due to their excellence in teaching, world-class research, and service to their professions and the community.

Hazel Barnes Prize

The $20,000 Hazel Barnes Prize is the largest and most prestigious single faculty award funded by the University of Colorado Boulder. It was established in 1991 by former Chancellor James Corbridge in honor of Philosophy Professor Emerita Hazel Barnes to recognize “the enriching interrelationship between teaching and research.”

Nominees are regionally and nationally recognized, tenured faculty members who are not only outstanding teachers, but who also have distinguished records in research and scholarship. The Hazel Barnes Prize selection committee is comprised of past recipients.

MacArthur Fellows

The MacArthur Fellows Program "awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction."  University of Colorado Boulder recipients include the following:

  • Patricia Limerick, 1995
  • Margaret Murnane, 2000
  • Norman R. Pace, 2001
  • Daniel Saul Jurafsky, 2002
  • Deborah S. Jin, 2003
  • Ana Maria Rey, 2013

President's Teaching Scholars Program

The President's Teaching Scholars Program, established in 1989 as a presidential initiative, is designed to honor faculty who have excelled in effective and exemplary teaching, creative work, scholarship, and research. The President’s Teaching Scholars are chosen from all University of Colorado campuses designated not only for skill in their own classrooms but for their promise of improving education and enlarging its possibilities across the University.

Professors of Distinction

The honorific title College Professor of Distinction is reserved for scholars and artists of national and international distinction who are also recognized by their College peers as teachers and colleagues of exceptional talent. Four members of the University of Colorado Boulder faculty have been named 2019 Professors of Distinction by the College of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their exceptional service, teaching and research.

Nobel Laureates

  • David Wineland, a lecturer in CU-Boulder’s physics department and a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics for his work using laser cooling to trap individual ions, allowing researchers to manipulate and measure individual quantum systems. He shared the prize with France’s Serge Haroche.
  • Several CU-Boulder research faculty from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for their contributions to the international report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
  • Professor John Hall won the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics for his contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy.
  • Distinguished Professor Carl Wieman and Professor Eric Cornell won the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics for creating a new form of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate.
  • Distinguished Professor Thomas Cech won the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery that RNA in living cells can function as a biocatalyst.

Distinguished Professors

The University named four Boulder faculty members distinguished professors for 2019.

Laws of the Regents, Article 9.B.1., states: "…the designation of "distinguished professor" is bestowed on university faculty members who have distinguished themselves as exemplary teachers, scholars, and public servants, and who have extraordinary international importance and recognition."

According to University Administrative Policy Statement Procedures for Implementing Regent Actions on Distinguished Professorships, “the title "Distinguished Professor" is the highest honor that the University of Colorado bestows on its own faculty members. This title is extended to recognize the outstanding contributions of University of Colorado faculty members to their academic disciplines.”

"Candidates recommended for a distinguished professorship must demonstrate accomplishments in accordance with the following University-wide criteria: 

  • A record of distinguished performance in research or creative work; 
  • In aggregate, a record of excellence in the promotion of learning and student attainment of knowledge and skills; and
  • A record of outstanding service to the profession and to CU and/or affiliate institutions. 

The very nature of the title "distinguished" implies that there shall be a limited number of faculty holding this title. It is intended to signify a select group of faculty members who are leaders in their respective fields as attested to by national or international recognition and/or their significant public service achievements."

View the list of active, retired and deceased distinguished professors.