2026 ‘Great Teacher’ Mark Prendergast puts critical thinking at center of learning
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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 19, 2026) — This February, the University of Kentucky Alumni Association honored six recipients of this year’s Great Teacher Awards.
Launched in 1961, the awards are the longest-running UK recognition program for accomplished and passionate educators.
To receive the honor, teachers must first be nominated by a student. The UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award Committee, in cooperation with the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa, then makes the final selection. Recipients receive a commemorative award and stipend.
Mark Prendergast, Ph.D., professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of this year’s distinguished Great Teacher Award recipients.
Prendergast joined UK’s faculty in 1999 and serves as an endowed professor and director of the neuroscience Bachelor of Science degree program. His research focuses on the biochemical mechanisms involved in alcohol and drug dependence, including potential new targets for treating substance use disorders.
Beyond the lab, Prendergast advises NeuroCATS, a student organization with more than 600 members dedicated to expanding neuroscience education. His own interest in the field began early and continues to shape the enthusiasm he brings to his students.
“I stumbled into neuroscience as a young person and fell in love with it, and to this day I love it even more than I did back then,” Prendergast said. “This is a discipline that inspires me.”
For Prendergast, teaching neuroscience is about more than helping students understand complex scientific concepts. He wants students to develop the ability to ask questions, evaluate information and apply what they learn long after college.
“The content is very important, but the strategy of critical thinking is the real key to college education,” he said. “We talk a lot about critical thinking skills because that’s what we should be teaching. We’re giving these students tools, — tools they will hopefully use for the rest of their life.”
Creating an environment where students feel comfortable asking questions, participating and learning is central to his approach.
“My classroom has to be comfortable, not simply because I want to put students at ease, which I certainly do, but there’s a way to have fun while learning some pretty complicated science.”
Prendergast also looks for opportunities to connect lessons to experiences beyond the textbook by bringing physicians, therapists, patients and clients into the classroom, allowing students to see how the concepts they are studying apply to people’s lives.
“It’s about helping people,” Prendergast said. “Not only teaching college students, but it’s also about helping better understand how the body works and what happens when the body doesn’t work as it should.”
That focus on helping others is also at the heart of what Prendergast finds rewarding about teaching.
“This is my happy place. In the classroom is my ultimate happy place,” he said. “It makes me feel like I’ve left the world a better place. And at the end of the day, I think that’s what most of us want to do.”
To learn more about what makes Prendergast a “Great Teacher,” check out the video and “Behind the Blue” podcast episode above.
In the coming months, UKNow will continue to share stories featuring this year’s Great Teacher Award winners.
“Behind the Blue” is available via a variety of podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify. Subscribe to receive new episodes each week, featuring UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists, writers and the most important news impacting the university.
“Behind the Blue” is a production of the University of Kentucky. Transcripts for most episodes are now embedded in the audio file and can be accessed in many podcast apps during playback. Transcripts for older episodes remain available on the show’s blog page.
This podcast has been edited for time and clarity.
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