Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
In 1938, an anonymous gift to the University created an endowment, the purpose of which was unique in American higher education: a monetary award to be presented annually to faculty members in recognition of their excellence in teaching undergraduate students. The donor’s anonymity technically prevailed for more than a decade, but in 1952, University Trustee Ernest Quantrell added to his gift, consented to be acknowledged as the donor and named the award for his parents, Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell.
The Quantrell Award is believed to be the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching. Based on letters of nomination from students, the award is among the most treasured by faculty. Nobel Laureate James Cronin, University Professor in Physics, said he was “bowled over to be receiving this Quantrell prize.”
“I really care about teaching undergraduates—it’s both a great responsibility and a great pleasure—and to have this recognition is just incredible. It’s better than some of the more public awards I’ve gotten,” he said.
In a 1952 issue of the University of Chicago Magazine, Quantrell described the motivation behind his gift. “The success of a university depends on its product, and its product consists of students trained to lead happy, proficient, useful and unselfish lives. To obtain this product, a good faculty is essential and constitutes the most important part of a university. We have had, and still have, great teachers, but we will have still greater ones.”
2026
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2021
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2019
2018
2017
- Andrew Abbott
- Agnes Callard
- Bana Jabri
- Scott Snyder
2016
- Daniel McGehee
- Derek Neal
- Emily Lynn Osborn
- Malte Willer
- Sarah Ziesler
2015
- Matthew Briones
- Daniel E. Holz
- Ilaria Rebay
- Sara Ray Stoelinga
- Martha Ward
2014
- Daniel Brudney
- Gregory Dwyer
- Anne S. Henly
- David A. Mazziotti
- John E. Woods
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
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1993
- Stuart Sherman
- Gerald Rosenberg
- Edward Kolb
- Michael Dickinson
- Laurie Butler
1992
- Richard Saller
- Joseph Jaraback & Thomas Jones
- Charles Gray
- Fred Donner
1991
- Ursula Storb
- David Malament
- Diane Herrmann
- Martin Burke
1990
- Peter White
- Bernard Strauss
- Harold Richman
- Leo P. Kadanoff
- Philip Kurland
1989
- Radovan Zak
- John Frederick
- Lauren Berlant
- Constantin Fasolt
1988
- Robert Peters
- Arunas Liulevicius
- J. David Greenstone
- Monte Lloyd
- Jan Goldstein
1987
- Joseph Williams
- Lorna Straus
- James Redfield
- Karl Weintraub
- Frank Merritt
1986
- Jose Quintans
- Jonathan Z. Smith
- Gerald Honigsblum
- David Oxtoby
1985
- Hugh Wilson
- Alfred Putnam
- John Mearsheimer
- Anna Crone
1984
- Robert Ferguson
- David Draper
- Dennis Hutchinson
- Jean Comaroff
1983
- Malka Moscona
- William McNeill
- Michael Turner
- Ted Cohen
- Leon Kass
1982
- Robert Richards
- Edward Garber
- Robert Fefferman
- Janel Mueller
1981
- Sam Peltzman
- Mark Inghram
- Chi-Ch’ao Chao
- Ronald A. Thisted
1980
- John Simpson
- John Macaloon
- Amy Kass
- Edward Haydon
- Robert Geroch
1979
- Peter Wyllie
- Marvin Zonis
- Clifford Gurney
- David Bevington
1978
- Melvin Shochet
- Herbert Friedmann
1977
- Ralph Nicholas
- Norman Nachtrieb
- Hewson Swift
1976
- Leonard Olsen
- Richard Taub
- Francis Kinahan
1975
- William Veeder
- Beatrice Garber
- Bertram Cohler
- Paul Moore
1974
- Leon Stock
- Ira Kipnis
- Philip Gossett
- Robert Haselkorn
1973
- Suzanne Rudolph
- John Hubby
- Norman Maclean
- Edward Anders
1972
- Richard Mintel
- Robert Hummel
- Wayne Booth
- H. Gregg Lewis
- Richard Beals
1971
- Peter Meyer
- Richard Mckeon
- Philip Hoffmann
- Donald Levine
1970
- Lorna Straus
- Stuart Rice
- Joseph Cropsey
- Easley Blackwood
1969
- Henry Rago
- Emile Karafiol
- Manfred Ruddat
- Virgil Burnett
- Isaac Abella
1968
- Dudley Shapere
- Edward Kollar
- John Jamieson
- Lester Little
1967
- Gilbert White
- David Wake
- Michael Murrin
- Paul Sally Jr.
1966
- Nathan Sugarman
- David Orlinsky
- Elder Olson
- Arunas Liulevicius
1965
- Joseph Schwab
- James Redfield
- Nien-Chu Yang
- Eric Cochrane Jr.
1964
- Ralph Lerner
- John Cawelti
- Sylvain Bromberger
- Frank Child
1963
- Herman Sinaiko
- Gerson Rosenthal
- Richard Lashof
- Mckim Mariott
1962
- Fred Siegler
- Leo Nedelsky
- Edward Wasiolek
- Norman Nachtrieb
1961
- Ray Koppelman
- Irving Kaplansky
- Meyer Isenberg
- Abram Harris
1960
- Karl Weintraub
- Janice Spofford
- Roger Hildebrand
- David Williams
1959
- Kenneth Rehage
- Merlin Bowen
- Lawrence Bogorad
- Marvin Meyers
1958
- Izaak Wirszup
- Stuart Tave
- Maynard Krueger
- Viola Manderfeld
1957
- George Playe
- Thomas Lee
- Reuel Denney
- Maurice Cramer
1956
- Rosalie Wax
- Joshua Taylor
- Harold Gall
- Christian Mackauer
1955
- Charles Wegener
- John Netherton
- Gwin Kolb
- Daniel Harris
1954
- Beatrice Mintz
- Wells Chamberlin
- Donald Meikeljohn
- Mark Ashin
1953
- Robert Monroe Palter
- John Oliver Hutchens
- Edward Rosenheim Jr.
- Grosvenor William Cooper
1952
- Jay Coler Williams Jr.
- Alan Simpson
- Wilma Ebbitt
- Alfred Putnam
1951
- H. Stefan Schultz
- James Parsons
- Knox Hill
1950
- William Meyer Jr.
- Joseph Ceithaml
- William Bradbury
1949
- Warner Wick
- Richard Weaver
- John Mayfield
1948
- Aaron Sayvetz
- Milton Singer
- Albert Hayes
1947
- Louise Roberts
- Benson Ginsburg
- Elseo Vivas
1946
- F. Joseph Mullin
- Robert Keohane
- Eugene Northrop
1945
- Durbin Rowland
- Harold Haydon
- Graham Dushane
1944
- Everett Olson
- Gerhard Meyer
- John Davey
1943
- T. Walter Johnson
- Arthur Friedman
- Michael Ference
1942
- Russell Thomas
- David Daiches
- Edward Espenshade
1941
- Norman Maclean
- James Babcock
- Victor Johnson
1940
- Paul Voth
- James Cate
- Ralph Sanger
1939
- William Krumbein
- Ralph Buchsbaum
- Clarence Faust
1938
- Reginald Stephenson
- William Hutchinson
- Joseph Schwab