Four Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) faculty members were recognized at the annual Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching & Research Awards. They included Melinda Corwin, Ph.D., professor in the School of Health Professions Department of Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences, and Craig Cox, Pharm.D., associate professor of pharmacy practice and vice chair of experiential programs in the School of Pharmacy, who both received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Alyce Ashcraft, Ph.D., associate dean for research and professor in the School of Nursing, and Kumuda Das, Ph.D., professor and director of research in the School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology and director of the Center for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research, both received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award.

TTUHSC President Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., said the awards offer an opportunity to demonstrate the accomplishments of the university to the Texas Tech University System leadership each year.

“All that these faculty have done makes everyone of us proud of what we do.” Mitchell said. “In a university like ours where we train professionals, produce research and serve a community, the discipline that our faculty exhibits is what makes us very different from our peers around.”

Faculty from all Texas Tech University System universities are nominated by the leaderships at their universities and award winners are selected by the chancellor’s council. The awards are the highest honors given by the Texas Tech University System to faculty members at its component institutions.

“Every year, the chancellor is looking for great faculty for these awards, and it’s relatively easy to find quality people to present to him to consider for these awards,” Mitchell said. “Every single year that goes by, we are getting larger and better.”

Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert L. Duncan expressed appreciation and pride for educational and research accomplishments of each of the award winners, saying they had made significant contributions that benefit all of the Texas Tech University System.

“These awards are really significant and we are really proud to give these,” Duncan said

Duncan also spoke about the unique mission of TTUHSC and how faculty members like those recognized help achieve it.

“What you do here at TTUHSC is really unique,” Duncan said. “What I’ve always known, but what I’ve learned more in the chancellor position, is how robust TTUHSC is, how much it is growing and how much innovation is here. It’s really an exciting thing. The research we are doing here and the teaching quality is phenomenal.”