Marie Kraska Award for Excellence in Teaching

Annual • $1,000 + plaque • Associate/Full Professors (Math & Stat) • Official Page →

2026 Deadlines

Milestone Date
Nominations due (names only) Friday, February 20, 2026
Complete packages due Friday, March 20, 2026

Background

This annual award was established by Dr. Marie Kraska, a Mildred Cheshire Fraley Distinguished Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology. Dr. Kraska received a Master’s degree in Probability and Statistics from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Auburn University.

Eligibility

  1. Associate or full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  2. Both mathematics and statistics faculty are eligible
  3. Must be an innovative, challenging teacher who is respected by faculty and students

Selection Criteria

The recipient of the Kraska Award will be named by the Chair of the Department, in consultation with the selection committee. The donor recommends that selection criteria include letters from program graduates.

A recipient is eligible to receive the award in subsequent years if selected.

Selection Committee

The Kraska Award Committee consists of:

  1. A COSAM faculty member (identified by the Dean or Associate Dean responsible for graduate studies)
  2. An alumnus of the graduate program in mathematics or statistics
  3. A current graduate student in the mathematics or statistics program

Past Recipients

Year Recipient
2025–2026 Jingyi (Ginny) Zheng
2021–2022 Erkan Nane
2020–2021 Philippe Gaillard
2019–2020 Jessica McDonald
2018–2019 Wenxian Shen
2017–2018 Dean Hoffman
2016–2017 Ash Abebe
2015–2016 Peng Zeng
2014–2015 Nedret Billor
2013–2014 Bertram Zinner

Nomination Package Contents

A complete Kraska Award nomination package should include:

# Item Description
1 Nomination Letter From a faculty member, addressing the nominee’s teaching excellence
2 Nominee’s CV Current curriculum vitae
3 Teaching Evaluations Student evaluations from the past 3 years, organized by semester and course
4 Supporting Letters 2–3 letters from faculty, graduate alumni, and/or current graduate students

Note: The donor recommends including letters from program graduates. This is especially valued by the selection committee.

Download Template Package

Download Kraska Award Template

The template directory contains:

kraska-award/
  Nomination_Package_Kraska.tex      # Main LaTeX file
  nomination-package.sty              # Shared style file
  README.md                           # Instructions & checklist
  Nomination_Letter.pdf               # PLACEHOLDER - replace with real letter
  CV.pdf                              # PLACEHOLDER - replace with real CV
  Teaching_Evals_2024.pdf             # PLACEHOLDER - replace with real evals
  Teaching_Evals_2023.pdf             # PLACEHOLDER
  Teaching_Evals_2022.pdf             # PLACEHOLDER
  Support_Letter_Faculty.pdf          # PLACEHOLDER - replace with faculty letter
  Support_Letter_Grad_Student.pdf     # PLACEHOLDER - replace with student letter
  Support_Letter_Alumnus.pdf          # PLACEHOLDER - replace with alumnus letter

How to Use

  1. Download the template directory.
  2. Replace each placeholder PDF with the actual document.
  3. Edit Nomination_Package_Kraska.tex:
    • Update \def\Nominee{Dr. NOMINEE NAME} with the actual name.
    • Update \def\Award{YYYY Marie Kraska Award...} with the year.
    • Adjust \section and \subsection titles as needed.
    • Add or remove \vfile{} / \hfile{} / \hselectedfile{} commands to match your files.
  4. Compile with pdflatex Nomination_Package_Kraska.tex (run twice for TOC).
  5. Submit the resulting PDF to the committee chair.

See also: Email Templates for sample emails requesting nomination and support letters.