Every year, the department honors its exceptional students with a number of awards based around academic achievement, humanitarian service, and community involvement.
Undergraduate Awards
The College Prize for Excellence in Philosophy
The College Prize for Excellence in Philosophy is awarded to a graduating undergraduate student selected for their extraordinary efforts in the field by the Department Faculty.
2023 Winner of the College Prize for Excellence in Philosophy – David Winner
The John N. Findlay Award
John Findlay, a Border Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, was known as an imaginative and comprehensive philosopher in an era that seemed dedicated to restricting the scope and depth of philosophical investigation. Born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1903, Professor Findlay was educated at Transvaal University and Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and obtained his doctorate in 1933 at the University of Graz in Austria. Over the course of his career as a professor he taught in South Africa, New Zealand, England, and in the United States at Texas University and Yale University, until arriving at Boston University in 1972, where he spent the rest of his career. Professor Findlay believed that modern philosophy had evaded its responsibility to explore the relationship between human behavior and moral values. Not only did he aim to explore and master every major current in American and European philosophy, he also explored Indian, Japanese, and Chinese thought.
2023 Winner of the John N. Findlay Award – Alexandra Mascarello
The Matchette Prize for Excellence in Philosophy
The Matchette Prize is for the most distinguished paper written by an undergraduate for a philosophy course, either present year or in the last academic year, selected by the faculty of the Department of Philosophy.
2023 Winner of the Matchette Prize for Excellence in Philosophy –Jamieson Greene
Click here for the past winners.
The Peter A. Bertocci Award for Philosophical Excellence
Peter Anthony Bertocci, a Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy, was a colleague and friend to the Boston University community and the Department of Philosophy for thirty-one years. Bertocci earned his B.A. at Boston University in 1931 and his M.A. at Harvard University the following year, before returning to BU to earn his Ph.D. in 1935.
2022 Winner of the Peter A. Bertocci Award for Philosophical Excellence – Melissa Boberg
Click here for the past winners.
The Peter M. Nelson Memorial Award for Distinguished Work by a Junior
The Memorial Award is a gift from the family and friends of Peter Marius Nelson. Peter Nelson was a brilliant student of philosophy who graduated magna cum laude from the College of Art & Sciences in 1964; the Award was established upon his death in 1968. The Award is given to a student in the Department of Philosophy who has displayed the highest achievement in the field during their Junior year.
2023 Winner of the Peter M. Nelson Memorial Award for Distinguished Work by a Junior – Quentin Clark
Click here for the past winners.
The Robert S. Cohen Award for Interdisciplinary Studies
2023 Winner of the Robert S. Cohen Award for Interdisciplinary Studies – Cici Huang
Click here for the past winners.
Graduate Awards
Shimony Prize
2023 Winner of the Shimony Prize – Leticia Catillo-Brache
Matchette Prize for Outstanding Graduate Paper
Awarded by department faculty.