Robert W. Doms, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Pathologist-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is one of eight Penn faculty members to receive the prestigious 2017-18 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Awards for Distinguished Teaching. "Distinguished" teaching is defined as teaching that is intellectually demanding, unusually coherent, permanent in its effect, and as having the capability of changing the way in which students view the subject they are studying. Among the reasons cited for his award are the fact that Dr. Doms has been voted by medical students as the best Module 1 lecturer/educator virtually every year since 2007, his generosity of time and individualized attention to students, and his innovative and popular approaches to small-group teaching.

The University of Pennsylvania normally gives out eight Lindback awards each year, divided evenly between health-related disciplines and all other departments and divisions. Award winners are determined by nominations and recommendations made by faculty and students in December based on certain guidelines. The awards were established in 1961 with the help of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation.

Previous Department recipients of the Lindback Award include Drs. Beth Furth (2006), Don Siegel (2003), Glen Gaulton (1996), Deborah Gillette and Michael Laposata (1989), Mike Cancro (1986), Henry O. Trowbridge (1980), Arnold J. Rawson (1972), Peter Nowell (1967), and Leonard Berwick (1963). Dr. Carolyn Cambor was the recipient of the Provost Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Lindback equivalent for non-standing faculty, in 2010.