Accolades

John L. Wood, Ph.D., has been designated as University Distinguished Professor, the highest honor bestowed on Baylor faculty.

Heidi J. Hornik, Ph.D., has been selected as the 2025 Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year for her superlative contribution to the learning environment at Baylor.

Baylor Professors Kevin D. Dougherty, Andrew P. Hogue, Wiff Rudd and J. Lenore Wright receive the lifetime designation of Master Teacher, the highest honor granted to Baylor faculty for sustained excellence in teaching.

Baylor's AFROTC, Detachment 810 has been ranked as the No. 1 Medium Detachment in the country, outperforming 49 other detachments nationwide to claim the top honor.

Veterans of Baylor (VoB) has been honored among the 1,600 Student Veterans of America (SVA) chapters as the 2024 SVA Chapter of the Year for its “remarkable contributions in enhancing their campus community.”

Baylor University has been awarded a $2.48 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative (RCII) to support a major expansion of the Black Gospel Archive (BGA) at Baylor University Libraries.

Baylor University has been named to TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 Best Colleges for Future Leaders 2025, a ranking measuring universities that excel in nurturing some of the nation’s most highly influential leaders.

Baylor University senior Isabella Zárate, an international studies and environmental studies double major from Katy, Texas, has been awarded the highly competitive Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Howard University.

Baylor University’s student chapter of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) has been honored by the national organization with an Outstanding Chapter award in the category of Celebrating Culture. Students and faculty representing SACNAS at Baylor received the award Oct. 31 while attending the National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) conference in Phoenix.
Four Baylor University students have been named University Innovation Fellows, a nationally competitive global program run by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design that empowers student leaders to increase campus engagement with innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking and creativity.
Fellow designation honors Dr. Gesztesy’s distinguished contributions to the mathematical sciences.

Baylor University School of Education (SOE) graduate Ashlyn Bergethon, B.S.Ed. ’24, has continued an impressive string of Baylor SOE student teachers being recognized with national and state honors for their work in the classroom while a Baylor senior.
Ivan Korendovych, Ph.D., the inaugural James. R. Schofield Endowed Chair in Biochemistry at Baylor University, has been recognized by the American Chemical Society as the preceptor for this year’s Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry, a national ACS award that recognizes an outstanding graduate student and instructor in chemistry.

Baylor University’s Corey P. Carbonara, Ph.D., professor of film and digital media, Master Teacher and an innovator in advancing new frontiers in media production technology, has been selected to receive the 2024 Presidential Proclamation from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has announced that Felipe Hinojosa, Ph.D., professor of history at Baylor University and The John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair for Baylor in Latin America, is among the 45 fellows who will make up the sixth cohort of its Leadership Academy/La Academia de Liderazgo.

Baylor University’s transformational undergraduate academic programs and experiences were Top 10 national highlights in the 2025 Best Colleges rankings, released today by U.S. News & World Report.

Baylor University again has attained elite Honor Roll status as one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, according to the Great Colleges to Work For® program. Based on faculty and staff responses to a related annual survey, Baylor was recognized in eight categories, including its first-ever recognition in the Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging category.

Baylor University has been recognized again by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption as one of the nation’s top education institutions offering robust adoption benefits programs.

Ten Baylor University faculty members have been selected by Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., to serve as 2024-2025 Baylor Fellows for their excellence in teaching and desire to advance Baylor’s commitment to transformational education.

FirstGen Forward, formerly the Center for First-generation Student Success, has announced Baylor University as one of 14 higher education institutions selected to its inaugural class of FirstGen Forward Network Champions.