In honor of their outstanding teaching abilities, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles recently named six faculty members as Harvard College Professors.

The award, presented annually to six tenured professors, provides those honored with a five-year chair and allows them to take a semester of paid leave or receive additional funds for research.

“Every year, it’s a pleasure to announce the names of those colleagues whose contributions to undergraduate education are outstanding, and to know that they will receive some tangible recognition for their commitment to our students,” Knowles said in a prepared statement.

This year’s honorees are Leo Damrosch, Bernbaum professor of literature; Peter L. Galison ’77, Mallinckrodt professor of the history of science and of physics; Robert Kiely, Loker professor of English and former master of Adams House; Stuart M. Shieber ’81, McKay professor of computer science; Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Phillips professor of early American history; and Gregory Verdine, professor of chemical biology.

Galison, who this past semester taught History of Science 120, “History and Philosophy of Modern Physics” and Physics 121, “History and Philosophy of 20th-Century Physics,” said he finds teaching a particularly rewarding part of his job.

“I enjoy teaching,” Galison said. “Trying to develop new forms and structures of teaching has been the most enjoyable aspect of my job in recent years.”

Working to find new teaching presentations led Galison and Robb Moss, Arnheim lecturer on filmmaking, to offer a class last fall on the filming of science.

Scheiber, a professor of computer science, noted that the opportunity to enter the classroom was what drew him into becoming a university professor.