Established in 1995,The Academy of Distinguished Teachers, one of the first of its type in the nation, was created to recognize and enhance teaching, particularly at the undergraduate level. Members are chosen on the basis of their outstanding teaching, their personal commitment to students and the learning process, and their ability to inspire and motivate in the classroom. Members will serve in the Academy for the duration of their tenure at UT. The Academy inducts up to 10 new members each year and is limited to eighty professors in active service, or roughly 6% of the tenured faculty.

Upon election to the Academy, each faculty member will receive a permanent academic salary increase, will be designated a Distinguished Teaching Professor, and will be afforded other perquisites normally afforded to holders of endowed faculty positions.

Academy members are expected to serve as an advisory group to the Provost on teaching excellence, to provide institutional leadership and guidance for the distinctive undergraduate experience available in a research university environment, to organize seminars, colloquia, and workshops on teaching effectiveness, and to serve as mentors for new faculty.

Every year the deans of the colleges and schools will nominate proposed Academy members, and a committee that includes current members of the Academy, students, and other faculty will review the nominations. The final selections will be made by the Provost.

1995 Raymond E. Davis (Chemistry and Biochemistry)*
1995 William T. Guy Jr. (Mathematics)*
1995 Melvin Oakes (Physics)*
1996 James W. Vick (Mathematics)*
1998 Charles Chiu (Physics)*
1998 David A. Laude (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
1998 Michael P. Starbird (Mathematics)
1999 Alan Campion (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
1999 Brent L. Iverson (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
2000 Eric V. Anslyn (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
2000 Shelley M. Payne (Biological Sciences)
2000 Stanley J. Roux (Biological Sciences)
2001 Katherine M. Davis (Mathematics)
2002 S. Martin Shankland (Biological Sciences)*
2002 J. Craig Wheeler (Astronomy)
2003 John M. White (Chemistry and Biochemistry)*
2005 Alan K. Cline (Computer Science)*
2005 James W. Daniel (Mathematics)*
2005 Donald E. Winget (Astronomy)
2006 John E. Gilbert (Mathematics)
2007 Arturo De Lozanne (Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology)
2009 Jayadev Misra (Computer Science)*
2010 Greg Sitz (Physics)
2011 Michael Downer (Physics)
2013 Calvin Lin, professor (Computer Science)
2013 Theresa O’Halloran (Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology)
2013 Sheldon Ekland-Olson (Human Ecology)
2014 Samuel Gosling (Psychology)
2014 John Stanton (Chemistry)
2014 Peter Stone (Computer Science)
2015 John Markert (Physics)
2016 Lorenzo Alvisi (Computer Science)*
2016 Volker Bromm (Astronomy)
2016 Uri Treisman (Mathematics)
2017 Kristen Grauman (Computer Science)
2020 Sonia Paban (Physics)

* Former members