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HSS Honors and Awards

HSS scholars have been recognized for their research, teaching, and mentoring with a wide range of honors and awards—both from within Caltech and from honorary societies, prestigious fellowships, and other national and international accomplishments.

These pages highlight some of the many achievements of the current HSS faculty. The division awards prizes of its own to outstanding Caltech students and, since 2005, the Francis Bacon Prize to a distinguished scholar in the history of science.

Featured Faculty Research Honor

Jed Buchwald
Buchwald Awarded Koyré Medal for Career Achievement in the History of Science

Doris and Henry Dreyfuss Professor of History Jed Buchwald is the 2023 recipient of the Alexandre Koyré Medal, which is awarded by the International Academy of the History of Science for a scholar’s lifetime achievements in the field. In an interview about the award, Buchwald explained: “The history of science is and can be a marvelous field as long as people pay close attention to the substance and technical underpinnings of the subject and do not focus principally on aspects that, while they may provide illuminating contextual background, bypass the main event. You cannot provide a full and proper understanding of the historical course of evolving science without focusing directly on content because that’s what the subject is all about.”

Read more about Buchwald’s career and the Koyré Medal More HSS faculty research honors

Featured Teaching or Mentoring Award

Ritsuko Hirai Toner
Lecturer in Japanese Ritsuko Hirai Toner Honored with Student Teaching Award

The Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT) included Lecturer in Japanese Ritsuko Hirai Toner among its teaching award recipients for the 2022–2023 academic year. Since the mid-1970s, the undergraduates have bestowed this award on professors, lecturers, and teaching assistants who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to teaching and concern for their students’ learning. Toner joined Caltech in 1992. Among her accolades, she received an earlier ASCIT teaching award in 2003 and an HSS Brass Division Award for teaching in 2020.

More teaching and mentoring award winners

Student Prizes

HSS Student prizewinners graphic
Announcing the 2024 HSS Student Prizewinners

The Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to present its prize recipients for the 2023–2024 academic year.

Read article about 2024 HSS Prizewinners More HSS student prizewinners