The MIT Excellence Awards

MIT Excellence Awards and Collier Medal recipients are honored at a celebration in June each year. 

Congratulations to this year's award recipients!

These awards are intended primarily to acknowledge the work of service, support, administrative, and sponsored research staff. They are also for faculty and other academic staff where their work meets the specific guidelines described within the six award categories. These awards are not intended to recognize research or teaching accomplishments. Both teams and individuals are eligible to be nominated for any of the award categories. Subcontractors, consultants, outsourced, and temporary employees are not eligible for the cash award.

Staff and faculty members who serve on the MIT Excellence Awards Selection Committee are not eligible for a team or individual awards during the year(s) they serve.

The Collier Medal is open to all MIT staff and students, faculty, and the MIT community.

Anyone at MIT may nominate an individual or a team for an award during the nomination period, which runs each fall.

Each year a new committee is chosen to review nominations and select award recipients. The committee evaluates the nominations based on how well they address the questions posed in the nomination form and the criteria of the specific award category. The committee then meets to make its final selections.

FY2023 Selection Committee

• Gabriella Browne, Senior Financial Administrator, Office of the Provost
• Michelle Carmichael, Administrative officer, Music and Theater Arts Section, SHASS
• Danielle Grassia Canas, Senior Associate Director, Recruiting Operations, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Amna Greaves, Assistant Group Leader, Lincoln Laboratory
• Rajan Gurjar, Technical Staff, Lincoln Laboratory
• Steven DeMarco, Deputy Chief, MIT Police
• Rose Durham, Vendor Procurement Manager, Dept of Facilities
• Jeff Kelly, Financial Assistant II, Office of Graduate Education, Office of the Vice Chancellor
• Cesar Mieses, Director of People and HR Strategy, MIT Media Lab, School of Architecture and Urban Planning
• Chris Murphy, Senior Business Systems Analyst, IS+T 
• Renie Pavilon, Senior Events planning Associate, Office of the President
• Solomon Posner, Project Coordinator, Strategic Initiatives, Office of Student Wellbeing, Division of Student Life
• Reza Rahaman, B. Gordon Industry Co-Director and Senior Lecturer, Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, School of Engineering
• Shikha Sharma, Librarian for Business and Management, Libraries

Individual recipients receive $2,000; teams receive up to $10,000 ($2,000 maximum per individual). Cash awards are considered additional pay and will have payroll taxes removed before issuance.

MIT Excellence Award nominees are nominated in one of the categories below:

• Bringing out the Best: Everyday Leadership Throughout MIT
• Embracing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Maximizing MIT’s Strengths
• Innovative Solutions: Collaborating for Results
• Outstanding Contributor: Working Behind the Scenes
• Serving our Community: Providing Consistent and Exceptional Service 
• Sustaining MIT: Meeting the Needs of the Present and Future 
• Collier Medal 

Learn more