Faculty Senate | UC Davis School of Medicine

The C. John Tupper Prize for Excellence in Teaching, is the highest teaching award given by the School of Medicine. Created by the founding dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, this award is intended to recognize significant contributors to education. 

The award is given by the School of Medicine for the educational contributions of a faculty member over a period of a career. The successful candidates may be characterized by a trajectory of sustained significant recognitions and /or may have been previously recognized (e.g, teaching awards) for their contributions to medical education at UC Davis School of Medicine. Since one of the important factors in the selection is that the awardee is widely recognized as an outstanding teacher, the Committee on Honors and Awards welcomes nominations from multiple constituencies, such as faculty, students, and staff.

Among the criteria used to judge nominees are:

• command of the subject matter and the ability to relate it to the students and/or housestaff
• ability to stimulate thought
• ability to teach students and/or housestaff how to learn so they can develop an independent program of sustained learning
• contribution to improved teaching
• concern for the education and welfare of the students and/or housestaff
• advising and mentoring
• facilitating the educational experience of students and/or housestaff

Candidates may come from either clinical or basic science as well as administrative faculty within the School of Medicine. Teaching may include design of curricula in which the learning of all students is enhanced by sustained input into curricular development through contributions of time and skills.

Pre-proposal nomination letters of no more than two pages are being solicited from the faculty, alumni, staff, and students, and should describe the nominee’s qualifications, particularly those that set the candidate apart as a distinguished educator. Please include a Curriculum Vitae, teaching evaluations, contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion, and other pertinent documents. After a preliminary review, full nomination packets will be requested for the top nominees for consideration by the Committee on Honors and Awards.

Nomination submissions for the 2024 award are expected between November 2023 - February 2024.

Please send or email to:

Lao Thao
Office of Medical Education
School of Medicine
University of California, Davis
4610 X St., Suite 2101D
Sacramento, CA 95817
Tel: 916-734-3530
email: lythao@ucdavis.edu

The recipient of the C. John Tupper Prize for Excellence in Teaching will receive a plaque and a monetary honorarium, with announcement and presentation at the School of Medicine’s annual Senior and Faculty Awards Dinner.

Previous Award Recipients

The Hibbard Williams Award for Extraordinary Achievement recognizes contributions made to the School of Medicine’s mission that do not fall clearly into the categories of either teaching or research. This award recognizes a broad range of contributions such as public service, academic achievements that bring distinction to the university, raising its profile at a national or international level, etc. These contributions may be either singular in nature, or they may represent a long-term achievement in a particular arena. Above all, the contribution(s) must be truly exceptional. As such, the award may not be given every year, or may, on occasion, be awarded to more than one individual in a single year. Recipients of this award receive it only once. 

This award requires a 1- to 2-page pre-proposal nomination that summarizes the candidate's accomplishments, trajectory, contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion, and curriculum vitae. The Committee on Honors and Awards will consider all nominations. Those appearing to be of sufficient merit will trigger a request for more documentation from each of the nominators. Because the nature of the nominees’ contributions will vary, the exact nature of the documentation will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Pre-proposal nominations may be submitted to the Committee on Honors and Awards at any time; those received after the deadline will be considered in the next awards cycle. 

Nomination submissions for the 2024 award are expected between November 2023 - February 2024.

Please send or email to:

Lao Thao
Office of Medical Education
School of Medicine
University of California, Davis
4610 X St., Suite 2101D
Sacramento, CA 95817
Tel: 916-734-3530
email: lythao@ucdavis.edu

The recipient will be selected by the Committee on Honors and Awards with consultation from the Dean of the School of Medicine and announced at the School of Medicine’s annual Senior and Faculty Awards Dinner. This award is a plaque and monetary honorarium.

Previous Award Recipients

Since 1975, the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals have supported annual awards for excellence in teaching at the UC Davis School of Medicine and affiliated hospitals. Faculty recipients receive a plaque and a generous monetary award of $1,200 each. 

There are three awards presented annually at the Senior and Faculty Awards Banquet: 

• An award to a full-time faculty member in a basic science department.
• An award to a full-time faculty member in a clinical science department.
• An award to a member of the volunteer clinical professor (VCP) in a clinical science department.
• The VCP consists of physicians, usually in private practice, who has voluntarily donated their time and skills to assist in medical education at the UC Davis Medical Center, VA Hospital, and other affiliated hospitals. 

Undergraduate medical students, residents, and full-time faculty members are eligible to make nominations in one or more of the award categories.  

Characteristics to be considered in making nominations should include enthusiasm, sincere interest in and willingness to help students and residents, ability to motivate learning, quality of lectures and teaching aids, contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion, quality of clinical (bedside) teaching, and (where appropriate) the demonstrated ability to serve as a model clinician. 

These preliminary nominations are limited to all faculty members with a record of sustained excellence (>3 years) in all phases of teaching medical students. The top three nominees in each category will be placed on a ballot and resubmitted to the students. A faculty member who has received this award in the past four years is not eligible. The recipients for the last four years are listed as follows:

Recent Award Recipients

The generosity of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals permits us to recognize the teaching contributions of our faculty, please carefully consider responding to this request for nominees. Nominators may nominate one candidate in each of the three categories, but nominating an individual in every category is not required. If a nominee is listed in an incorrect category by mistake, their name will be moved to the correct category. 

The 2024 nomination form will be available here in January.

The combined nominees received will be submitted to the student body for election of awardees in each category. 

Nomination submissions for the 2024 award are expected between January - March 2024.

Submit the complete form to: Committee on Honors and Awards (Attn. Lao Thao), email: lythao@ucdavis.edu 

The Joan Oettinger Memorial Award is in honor of Joan Oettinger who was a UC Davis graduate student who died of lung cancer in July 1970. Her husband, Martin, was a senior lecturer in economics at UC Davis before his death in 1986. This award is presented annually during the UC Davis School of Medicine Spring General Faculty Meeting.

Nomination Process:

1. The Joan Oettinger Memorial Award has been established in the UC Davis School of Medicine and will be given to a person or persons doing outstanding research in lung or cancer disease.
2. The award includes a stipend of $1,200 and a certificate.
3. Faculty, residents, and students are invited to submit the names of UC Davis School of Medicine faculty members or students they consider deserving of this award.
4. If the nominee is a student, documentation should be provided in the form of a manuscript and personal statements by the student and preceptor of the significance of the work. The extent of the student's participation should be clearly stated. If the nominee is a faculty member, please include a curriculum vitae and additional supporting data which will assist in the Committee's evaluation.

Nominations must be submitted electronically as one PDF packet and include the following:

1. Nomination form (will be available here in January 2024)
2. Statement not to exceed 500 words listing accomplishments that qualify the candidate for this award
3. Nominee's curriculum
4. Any supporting data that you feel will assist in the evaluation (reprints, reviews, etc.)

Nomination submissions for the 2024 award are expected between January - April 2024.

Submit the completed packet electronically to: the Committee on Research Affairs, email: HS-FEC@ucdavis.edu

Previous Award Recipients

The School of Medicine Research Award is given to a School of Medicine faculty member in recognition of outstanding contributions to biomedical science and medicine through laboratory or clinical research. The awardee will receive an award of $350 and $15,000 for support of a research fellow. Candidates will be evaluated by the Committee for Research Affairs.

Nomination Process:

1. Nominations may be made by any member of the UC Davis School of Medicine.
2. Any member of the Academic Federation or Academic Senate of the UC Davis School of Medicine may be nominated.
3. The award may be made to more than one person, and more than one individual may be nominated.
4. The Committee for Research Affairs may refrain from making an award in any given year if no nominee’s research is considered deserving of the award.
5. The award can recognize either a single achievement or an accumulated career of excellence. However, no person may receive more than one award for the same research category.
6. The outstanding research must have occurred during the nominee’s tenure at UC Davis School of Medicine.
7. Individuals not selected for the award may be nominated again in succeeding years.
8. The award will be presented at the Spring General Faculty Meeting. 

Nominations must be submitted electronically as one PDF packet and include the following:

1. Nomination Form (will be available here in January 2024)
2. Statement not to exceed 500 words listing accomplishments that qualify the candidate for the award
3. Nominee's curriculum
4. Any supporting data that you feel will assist in the evaluation (reprints, reviews, etc.)
5. Four reference names, email addresses, and telephone numbers of distinguished researchers in the nominee’s area who can be consulted (If possible, one or two should be UC Davis faculty members, and other nationally or internationally distinguished)

Nomination submissions for the 2024 award are expected between January - April 2024.

Submit the completed packet electronically to: the Committee on Research Affairs, email: HS-FEC@ucdavis.edu

Previous Award Recipients