Dean’s Dissertation Award
The AFSE Executive Committee helps select the winner of the Dean’s Dissertation Award, which recognizes excellence in dissertation research.
The Dean’s Dissertation Award recognizes excellence in dissertation research that embodies the ASU Charter and design aspirations and the FSE values as evidenced by contributions to (a) scientific discovery, (b) engineering innovations, and (c) use-inspired applications with the potential for major societal impact.
Nominations will be evaluated based on the content and quality of the nomination materials. In both the nomination letter and personal statement, competitive nominations should detail how the research contributes new or transformative knowledge, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, techniques, applications, and/or translations of the research.
The award promotes FSE research as well as the awardees themselves, giving them an edge in their potential future career in academia. The Dean’s Dissertation Award winners will be recognized at the Ph.D. Convocation Ceremonies in the fall and spring.
The award is presented to up to 5% of the number of prior year’s Ph.D. graduates in the FSE. The best submission from each program may be recognized with a Certificate of Recognition.
Spring nominations are open
Deadline for submission is February 28, 2024.
Timeline and call for nominations
There will be two calls for nominations:
August nomination
Nominate for candidates with a graduation window of the past summer and into the current fall semester.
January nominations
Nominate in January for candidates with a graduation window of the past fall semester and into the current spring semester.
Each call may result in up to half the specified number of awardees for the academic year.
Nominations Specifications for School Director
- An announcement is sent to schools in early August and early January.
- Each program may nominate at least one candidate; additionally, the number of students nominated per school must not exceed the greater of 10% of the average number of PhD graduates over the past three years or the number of programs.
- The nomination allocation is the total number of nominations that may be submitted for the academic year over two award cycles (August and January). Schools may decide how to allocate their submissions for each award cycle.
- Nominees must be a Ph.D. candidate at the date of submission of the nomination.
- Graduation windows for the two award periods are defined in the Introduction.
- The internal selection process is left up to each individual school.
- Nominations to the Dean’s office will be sent by the director of each school.
- Nominations for the two award periods are due in September and February. See the Submission of Application section for specific dates.
- Letter of nomination from the dissertation advisor, clearly indicating date of completion of comprehensive examination and/or dissertation proposal/prospectus examination. The nomination should address specifically the criteria listed in the Introduction. Nomination letters may not exceed 3 pages.
- An abstract of the dissertation limited to one page, including title, overview, broader impacts, and intellectual merit.
- A curriculum vitae (CV) of the candidate, including a list of publications that clearly distinguishes publications related to and not related to the dissertation research. The CV may not exceed 4 pages.
- A personal statement from the candidate, limited to one page, outlining why the candidate believes they should receive this award, specifically addressing the criteria listed in the Introduction.
- One letter of recommendation from a faculty member other than the dissertation advisor, who may be in or out of the candidate’s school, but typically within ASU. The letter should address specifically the criteria listed in the first paragraph.
Nominations to the Dean’s office will be sent by the director of each school.
School directors should submit nominations for the nomination window to Hahnna Christianson ([email protected]) by the nomination deadline below.
The Executive Committee will then review the materials for recommendation to the dean, and the final decisions will be made by the dean.
Nomination deadlines
January nomination window deadline: February 28, 2024.
August nomination window deadline: September 16, 2024.
- Winners are announced by the dean.
- Winners will be recognized at the Fulton Schools PhD Convocation ceremonies in fall and spring.
- Based on the number of applications, the Executive Committee (EC) will determine how many reviews each application will receive. Assignments will be based on knowledge of the dissertation topic and with a goal to distribute among schools. EC members will score each application on a scale of 1 – 5 based on the criteria listed in the first paragraph. These scores will be recorded in a spreadsheet, discussed and ranked during a committee meeting.
- The EC will send a ranking of the received nominations to the dean. This could be based on categories, e.g., highly competitive / competitive / not competitive and/or include a numerical ranking in the top categories.