Rice Economics Spring 2021 RISE Awards Day | Page 6

Faculty Awards
Faculty Awards
We also presented two faculty awards at RISE Day .
The first is the Malcolm Gillis Award for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching in Economics . Malcolm Gillis was not only an outstanding scholar in our department , an accomplished advisor to a multitude of governments and private entities , and an exemplary teacher , but also served as the President of Rice University from 1993 to 2004 . Malcolm was incredibly committed to fostering excellent undergraduate teaching at Rice , and this award is a fitting tribute to that commitment .
Jim Brown
The winner of the Malcolm Gillis Award for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching in Economics this year is Professor Jim Brown , who has been at Rice since 1992 . In that time , he has been a spectacular teacher , winning the George R . Brown Award for Superior Teaching four times , the Brown Award for Excellence in Teaching on two occasions , as well as the Sarah Burnett Social Sciences Teaching Prize and the state-wide Piper Professor Award . Indeed in 2018 , Jim was awarded the George R . Brown Certificate of Highest Merit for lifetime teaching achievement at Rice , and was retired from all future Brown award competitions . But that also gave us an opening – since Jim has been retired from receiving any more Brown teaching awards , we thought it only fitting that we award him the Gillis prize to add to his trophy case .
Our second faculty prize is the Ralph O ’ Connor Award for Distinction in Teaching and Research in Economics . This award honors Ralph O ’ Connor , who was one of the founding members of the RISE Council , and played a huge role in shaping Rice over the years , serving on the university board of governors and as a trustee , helping to establish Martel College , and earning the first Chairman ’ s Award , the highest award for service given by the university , as well as the Rice Alumni Association ’ s Gold Medal . The award is made possible by a gift from Rob Ladd , who was the first chair of the RISE Council , and is currently the Chair of Rice ’ s Board of Trustees .
The winner of this year ’ s Ralph O ’ Connor Award for Distinction in Teaching and Research in Economics is Professor Richard Boylan . Richard has been at Rice since 2005 and has long been one of our most successful teachers , even though he is responsible for ECON 305 , Game Theory and other Microeconomic Topics , which is one of the gate-keeper courses for our Mathematical Economic Analysis major . He also teaches ECON 445 , Managerial Economics , which is one of our most popular and often over-subscribed electives . Richard ’ s research interests are in law and economics , political economy , game theory , and experimental economics , and he has recently published two articles in the Journal of Law and Economics , the top journal in that field . He is eminently deserving of the O ’ Connor Award for Distinction in Teaching and Research .
Richard Boylan
Kraft Hall -- Home of the Rice Economics Department
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