John Cumalat named Big 12 Faculty of the Year Award winner
He and fellow honorees represent ‘what makes college campuses thrive as places of learning and growth’
John Cumalat, a University of Colorado Boulder Professor of Distinction in the Department of Physics, has been named a winner.
The award celebrates a top faculty member from each Big 12 school, recognizing their excellence in innovation and research. The 16 honorees “represent what makes college campuses thrive as places of learning and growth,” according to Big 12 officials.
Professor of Distinction John Cumalat has been named a 2026 Big 12 Faculty of the Year Award winner.
"We are constantly looking for ways to highlight how Big 12 faculty continue to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders," said Big 12 Chief Impact Officer Jenn Hunter. "From the arts and filmmaking to business and engineering, this year's cohort showcases the vast opportunities available to students pursuing an education on Big 12 campuses."
The Big 12 Faculty of the Year Award is also an opportunity to showcase the diversity of research breakthroughs and educational opportunities afforded to students attending Big 12 institutions and helps attract future students, according to Big 12 officials. Faculty of the Year Award winners were nominated by their institutions in conjunction with Big 12 faculty athletics representatives, provosts and other university leaders.
“I am fortunate and humbled to be recognized with the Big 12 Faculty of the Year Award from the University of Colorado, as I am well aware there are so many talented peers in my department, my college and across the campus,” Cumalat says. “My selection is a great honor for my Department of Physics and my colleagues in high-energy physics.”
Cumalat, who last year was recognized with the С Boulder Hazel Barnes Prize, is best known for his research in particle physics and for developing state-of-the-art particle-detector technology and instrumentation.
After earning his PhD in physics from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1977 and completing postdoctoral work as the first Robert Rathbun Wilson Fellow atin Batavia, Illinois, Cumalat joined the С Boulder physics faculty in 1981. He has been recognized with multiple honors at С, including the Best Should Teach Award in 2003, the Robert L. Stearns Award in 2010 and the BFA Excellence in Service Award in 2013. He became a College of Arts and Sciences Professor of Distinction in 2014.
Cumalat is a member of multiple professional organizations, as well as the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at, the current principal investigator of the С High Energy Physics Department of Energy Grant and the principal investigator of the Professional Research Experience Program with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Cumalat has authored or co-authored more than 1,500 publications and has been cited more than 200,000 times, according to, an online hub that collects scholarly work in the field of high-energy physics. He has also served on several dozen graduate-student committees and on approximately 150 undergraduate-student thesis committees.
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