BFA announces Excellence Awards winners, celebratory ceremony April 7
The Boulder Faculty Assembly is pleased to announce the winners ofthe 2026 BFA Excellence Awards and invite members of the campus community to attend this year’s in-person ceremony in celebration oftherecipients. BFA Excellence Awards recognize outstanding contributions by faculty in the areas of teaching; service and leadership; and research, scholarly and creative work.
The awards, which are peer-nominated, are presented in three categories. The 2026 BFA Excellence Award categories and winners are:
Excellence in Leadership and Service
- Professor Jennifer Fluri, Geography
- Clinical Professor of Law Violeta Chapin, School of Law
- Associate Teaching Professor Dan Riffell, Mechanical Engineering
Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work
- Professor Michael McGehee, Chemical & Biological Engineering
- Professor Juliet Gopinath, Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering
- Professor Bhuvana Narasimhan, Linguistics
Excellence in Teaching
- Assistant Professor Natalie Mendoza, History
- Teaching Professor Abby Hickcox, Arts & Sciences Honors
- Associate Professor Chase Raymond, Linguistics
If you go
Who: Campus community
What: 2026BFA Excellence Awards ceremony and Hazel Barnes address by John Cumalat
When: Tuesday, April 7, 4:30–6:30 p.m.
Where: UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom
Hors d'ouerves and host bar to follow
In addition to honoring this year’s winners,the ceremony on April 7, will feature a faculty address by2025 Hazel Barnes Prize awardeeJohn Cumalat. A reception will follow afterward for attendees to share personal congratulations with each of the award winners.
The campus created theBFA Excellence Awardsin the early 1980s to recognize outstanding work and concerted effort in advancing the mission of the university and the academy at large.
These prestigious awards are made possible through financial support from the chancellor, enabling the BFA to grant each recipient a$5,000 monetary award.
TheHazel Barnes Prizeis the largest and most prestigious single faculty award funded by Ҵýƽ. 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.”
Hazel Barnes, one of our campus’smost accomplished scholars, received a BFA Excellence in Teaching Award in 1983.