Recipients of this year's teaching awards were honored at last month's faculty meeting with monetary prizes and words of praise from senior administrators.Profs. David Cunningham (SOC), Adrianne Krstansky (THA), Lizbeth Hedstrom (BCHM) and John Plotz (ENG), this year's recipients, were given monetary awards at the April 12 meeting.

Both students and alumni may nominate faculty for teaching awards, but the majority of nominations comes from students, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong said.

"What students write on course evaluations really does count in the election process," Wong said.

Faculty committeesultimately decide on the recipients of each award through consideration of each nominee as well as nominations from years past, and consult ation with departmental chairs. The committee to select the recipient of the Jeanette Lerman-Neubaer Award also includes two students. This year, Emily Kadar '08 and Beth Wexelman '07 sat on the committee.

"We think it's really important to recognize these people," Wong said.

Cunningham won the Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer '69 and Joseph Neubauer Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring , an award that includes a cash prize of $5,000.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, in his presentation of the award at the meeting, said the award "requires its recipient to be not only an exceptional teacher, but also a person who is a presence in the co-curricular and extracurricular life of students and who is known to be an exceptional mentor and advisor."

Krystansky won the Michael L. Walzer Award for Teaching, which includes a cash prize of $1,000. This prize is given to a professor who is working to receive tenure in the future.

Krystansky, who plans to save the money to buy a piano, said she felt "utterly honored."

"It is a joy to teach at Brandeis. I hope the students know that it is a two way street," she wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "My life is enhanced imeasurably by knowing them."

Jaffe said Krstansky's students "praise her energy, intellectual curiosity, enthusiasm, compassion, dedication, availability, imagination and creativity."

Hedstrom won the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching, which also includes a cash prize of $1,000. Jaffe, in his presentation, quoted a student who said, "She is the best lecturer at this school, very down to earth, loves what she does, loves to teach [and is] very good at conveying material."

"I am very pleased," Hedstrom wrote in an e-mail. "There are so many outstanding teachers here-it is quite an honor to be chosen."

Hedstrom plans to use the money to start saving up for a trip to Madagascar.

Plotz received the Graduate Mentoring Award from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Cunningham, Krystansky and Hedstrom were honored at commencement by marching and sitting on the dais during the ceremony.