Energy research luminary Michael Webber has been named one of three recipients of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education, one of the field’s most prestigious honors.
Webber is the Sid Richardson Chair in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #16 at The University of Texas at Austin. A nationally recognized professor of mechanical engineering and public policy, Webber helps policymakers, industry leaders and the public understand complex energy and environmental issues.
Through award-winning books, television programs viewed in more than 110 countries, continuing education courses that have reached more than 45,000 learners and K-12 educational resources distributed through platforms such as PBS LearningMedia and Minecraft, he has expanded public understanding of the systems that power modern life. Webber also brings industry and entrepreneurial experience as co-founder of DISCO Learning Media and former chief science and technology officer at global energy company ENGIE.
For more than four decades, the McGraw Prize has celebrated leaders whose vision and perseverance have helped education meet society’s most pressing challenges. Established to recognize the often-unsung changemakers driving progress in learning, the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education from the McGraw Center for Education Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) honors individuals whose work has expanded opportunity, transformed lives, and inspired lasting change across communities and generations.
“Education does not change through good intentions alone. It changes when leaders have the courage to rethink old assumptions and the determination to make new possibilities real,” said John Silvanus Wilson, executive director of the McGraw Center for Educational Leadership and a senior fellow at Penn GSE. “This year’s honorees have done exactly that. Their work offers powerful examples of how innovation can address some of education’s most persistent challenges.”
Webber was honored in the lifelong learning category. His fellow awardees are Darin Brawley, superintendent of California’s Compton Unified School District and Shai Reshef, founder of the first nonprofit, tuition-free, accredited online university, University of the People.
This year’s winners will each receive an award of $50,000 and a kinetic sculpture by artist Gary Traczyk at a ceremony on November 10, 2026, in New York City.