Professor Laurie Simon Hodrick Wins Presidential Teaching Award
Laurie Simon Hodrick, professor in the Finance and Economics Division, has won a 2006 Presidential Teaching Award, a University-wide honor that recognizes Columbia’s outstanding professors.
Five faculty members — from fields as diverse as history, medicine and theater — received the prestigious award at Commencement. Each was presented with a citation describing his or her teaching accomplishments and an honorarium of $5,000.
An expert on corporate financial decisions, Hodrick has earned numerous awards for both her research and excellence in teaching. She was also selected by students to receive the School’s Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom for a second consecutive year and the third time in her career.
“I’m inspired by the remarkable effort and commitment that students demonstrate as well as my belief in the primacy of the ideas that I teach,” Hodrick says.
The Presidential Teaching Award citation praised Hodrick for creating a challenging and inspiring learning environment that integrates her research into the curriculum. Emphasizing her lasting influence on students, the citation says: “It is your lessons they remember when their professional careers confront them with challenging problems in finance and that copies of your course materials remain on their bookshelves, dog-eared from frequent use.”
The four other faculty recipients of the award were Melissa D. Begg, professor of clinical biostatistics; Marc L. Dickstein, associate professor of clinical anesthesiology; Eric Foner, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History; and Nikolaus Wolcz, associate professor of professional practice.