The Professor Robert W. Hamilton Book Author Award is presented annually to the best book-length publication by a staff or faculty member of the University of Texas at Austin. It is chosen by a committee of various disciplines, who in turn were chosen by the Vice President for Research at the University of Texas at Austin.

All nominated books are honored at a ceremony, in addition to the prizewinners. $10,000 is awarded to the first prize winner, with four additional $3,000 prizes.

Past winners

• 2007: Evan Carton, Department of English, College of Liberal Arts, Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America
• 2006: Dr. L. Michael White
  L. Michael White
  L. Michael White is an American Biblical scholar. He is Ronald Nelson Smith Chair in Classics and Christian Origins, and director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins, at the University of Texas at Austin...
  
  , Department of Classics, College of Liberal Arts, From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith
• 2005: Eric R. Pianka
  Eric Pianka
  Eric Rodger Pianka is an American biologist, whose work includes herpetology and evolutionary ecology. His textbook, Evolutionary Ecology is considered a classic, and his writings for the general public and television appearances have made him an influential figure.-Youth:Pianka was born in...
  
  , Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professor in Zoology, Section of Integrative Biology, Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity
• 2004: Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Kay Forston Chair in European Art, Department of Art and Art History, Sensuous Worship: Jesuits and the Art of the Early Catholic Reformation in Germany
• 2003: Philip Bobbitt
  Philip Bobbitt
  Philip Chase Bobbitt is an American author, academic, and public servant who has lectured in the United Kingdom. He is best known for work on military strategy and constitutional law and theory, and as the author of Constitutional Fate: Theory of the Constitution , The Shield of Achilles: War,...
  
  , A. W. Walker Centennial Chair, School of Law, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History
• 2002: Mounira M. Charrad , Professor of Sociology, States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco
• 2001: Lucas Scot Powe, Jr., Professor of Law, The Warren Court and American Politics
• 2000: A. P. Martinich, Professor of Philosophy, Hobbes: A Biography
• 1999: Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Professor of Art & Art History, Duchamp in Context: Science and Technology in the Large Glass and Related Works
• 1998: Neil F. Foley, Associate Professor of History, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture
• 1997: Robert H. Kane, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy, The Significance of Free Will