<p>Age or status can make some professors more likely to engage with undergraduates or to take a stronger hand in influencing undergraduate programs. They’ve proven themselves already. </p>
<p>Chicago’s Quantrell Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching has gone to Danielle Allen (Classics professor and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient in 2001), James Cronin (Nobel, Physics), Hanna Gray (former president of the University), Bernard Roizman (“widely considered the world’s foremost expert on the herpes simplex virus”), Richard Kron (Director of Yerkes Observatory and head of the Experimental Astrophysics Group at Fermilab), and Norman Maclean (author of A River Runs Through It), among others.</p>
<p>Robert E. Lucas Jr. (Nobel, Economics 1995) taught a course each year to undergraduates; as far as I know he still holds an appointment in the College. Roger Myerson (Nobel, Economics 2007) teaches Economics 207, Introduction to Game Theory.</p>