Christia Mercer is awesome—and the Academic Awards Committee thinks so too. Minutes ago, they announced that she is the 2012 recipient of the Mark van Doren Award, the highest student-awarded honor a professor can receive. The Lionel Trilling Award, given to the professor who “best exhibits the standards of intellect and scholarship” in a recent work, will go to David B. Lurie for his 2011 work Realms of Literacy: Early Japan and the History of Writing.

In a press release issued by the Office of the Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences, they describe a little about the committee that chooses the award:

The Columbia College Academic Awards Committee, made up of students representing a cross-section of classes and majors within the College, is responsible for overseeing the selection for the Lionel Trilling and Mark Van Doren awards. Beginning in the fall, the committee co-chairs select new members and solicit nominations for each award. For the rest of the fall semester, and well into the spring, committee members audit the classes of Van Doren award nominees to observe the quality of their instruction. At the same time, committee members read books under consideration for the Trilling award. Working collaboratively, the committee meets every week to confer on the selection process and to evaluate nominated professors and titles. This process culminates in the selection of the winners in the spring.