Day: September 9, 2025

Finishing Fellowship Award – Fall 2025 – Kwadwo Boateng

Kwadwo Boateng, PhD in Civil Engineering, 2025

“I am honored to receive the Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Award from the Graduate School and the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel. I extend my gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Zhanping You, for his guidance and support, as well as to the faculty and staff of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering.

My research focuses on analyzing the effects of aging on asphalt binder performance by characterizing the chemical properties and mechanical performance of recycled rubber asphalt binder and mixtures. In the United States, approximately 300 million waste tires are produced each year, and these tires are non-biodegradable. Utilizing waste tires in asphalt pavement offers an environmentally sustainable solution for their disposal.

During my time at Michigan Tech, I have had numerous opportunities to develop my leadership and academic skills. I have served as a graduate student government representative for my department, volunteered as a facilitator for Orientation to Graduate Studies and Research, and instructed Prep4Tech, a math course designed for incoming engineering students at Michigan Technological University.

As I approach the final stages of my time at Michigan Tech, I am truly grateful for this fellowship. It will provide essential support in completing my research and advancing my career. I am looking forward to applying the knowledge gained at Michigan Tech in the field of asphalt pavement research.”

Distinguished Dissertation Award Nominee – Elizabeth Notovny

Elizabeth Notovny, PhD in Rhetoric Theory Culture, 2025

After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I came to Michigan Tech in Fall 2020 to join the Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture PhD program. I am now about to start as an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where I am excited to continue teaching writing courses.

My dissertation, “Distributing Composition: Rhetorical Agency in First-Year Writing,” centered on engaging students in lessons related to rhetorical agency in my composition class. These lessons helped students understand that agency in a writing situation is shared among many interconnected actors, meaning is constructed in collaboration with readers, writers must consider how material forces and their own embodiment contribute to writing, and that there is instability and unpredictability in communication. My work tracked how students in my class conceptualized rhetorical agency and how their conceptions changed throughout the semester, and I offered possibilities for how students might translate their understanding of rhetorical agency into writing process knowledge.

I am very grateful to be nominated for the 2025 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. I want to once again extend my thanks to my advisor, Oren Abeles, and committee members Holly Hassel and Jennifer Nish—without them, this work would not have been possible. I also want to thank all of the other wonderful folks in the Humanities Department who supported me throughout graduate school.