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Tag: Distinguished Dissertation Award

Nominations open for the 2020 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

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Nominations are now open for the 2020 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, June 2, 2020, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering
  2. Social Sciences (note: history is classed within the humanities and is not a field of competition in 2020)

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2020, are eligible. The fields of competition for 2021 will be humanities/fine arts and biological and life sciences.

Nominations must be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on June 2, 2020; e-mail nominations to gradschool@mtu.edu are preferred.  Contact Debra Charlesworth (gradschool@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition.

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Nominee for 2019 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award: Aranya Srijongjai

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Aranya Srijongjai
Rhetoric, Theory and Culture

I received a PhD in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture in 2019 at Michigan Tech under the supervision of Dr. Karla Kitalong. My dissertation focused on digital rhetoric of cosmopolitanism of people from a marginalized culture as situated in the context of a transnational experience. Using cases of Thai students studying at Michigan Tech, my dissertation project investigated their digital practices as they engaged with the Other on social media in everyday life. The methodological framework of this project was designed by consolidating various concepts and perspectives of new cosmopolitanism and digital rhetoric. In its contributions, apart from theoretical and pedagogical implications, this project also helps to shape the idea of digital rhetoric of cosmopolitanism by proposing a definition and a model to explain its ontological dimension.

After graduation, I returned to Thailand and resumed the position of a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand.

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Nominations open for the 2019 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

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Nominations are now open for the 2019 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, June 6, 2019, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. Biological and Life Sciences
  2. Humanities and Fine Arts

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2019, are eligible. The fields of competition for 2020 will be Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering; and Social Sciences.

Nominations must be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on June 6, 2019; e-mail nominations to gradschool@mtu.edu are preferred.  Contact Debra Charlesworth (gradschool@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition.

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Nominee for 2018 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award: Lauren Schaefer

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Lauren Schaefer
Geological Engineering

Lauren Schaefer 2018Lauren N. Schaefer received both an MSc in Geology (International Geological Masters in Volcanology and Geotechniques, 2012) and a PhD in Geological Engineering as a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow (2016) at Michigan Tech under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Oommen. Her dissertation investigated the potential for large-scale debris avalanches at Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala to optimize future monitoring and mitigation efforts. A combination of experimental rock mechanics, field investigations, remote sensing, and numerical modeling not only detected, but revealed the nature and mechanics of the largest landslide surge witnessed in a single event at a volcano. Her dissertation provided rare insight into precursory deformation prior to a potential future catastrophic collapse at an active volcano. Such an event was witnessed at Mount St. Helens in 1980, and is known to have occurred at over 400 volcanoes worldwide.

Currently, Lauren is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she continues to research landslide and volcanic hazards.

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Nominee for 2018 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award: Erin Pischke

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Erin Pischke
Environmental and Energy Policy

Erin Pischke 2018My dissertation research examines the public perceptions of socioecological impacts of oil palm production and the political ecology of environmental change in Tabasco, Mexico. I collaborate with natural, social and engineering scientists to study the impacts of bioenergy development projects to assess the sustainability of them. My work shows that past political and economic actions impact current environmental conditions and creates institutional and structural constraints in the region to which people are adapting. A multi-pronged, interdisciplinary approach tackles problems from various angles to, in a sense, make the problem smaller. My research also studies the challenges that international, interdisciplinary teams face when studying such impacts in international settings so that future research can be more successful.

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Nominees for 2018 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

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The Graduate School would like to congratulate and recognize Lauren Schaefer and Erin Pischke for being nominated for the Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honors for doctoral dissertations.

Two awards are given annually in two different broad areas (mathematics, physical sciences and engineering; and social sciences; and the biological sciences; and humanities and fine arts). The winners of the awards will be announced during the Fall 2018 Semester.

The 2018 fields of competition are:

Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering

Mathematics and Social Sciences

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Nominations open for the 2018 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

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Nominations are now open for the 2018 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, June 8, 2018, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering
  2. Social Sciences (note: history is classed within the humanities and is not a field of competition in 2018)

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2018, are eligible. The fields of competition for 2019 will be humanities/fine arts and biological and life sciences.

Nominations must be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on June 8, 2018; e-mail nominations to gradschool@mtu.edu are preferred.  Contact Debra Charlesworth (gradschool@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition.

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Nominations open for the 2017 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

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Nominations are now open for the 2017 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, June 27, 2017, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. Biological Sciences (including Forestry)
  2. Humanities and Fine Arts

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2017, are eligible. The fields of competition for 2018 will be mathematics, physical sciences, engineering, and social sciences.

Nominations must be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on June 27, 2017; e-mail nominations to gradschool@mtu.edu are preferred.  Contact Debra Charlesworth (gradschool@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition.

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Nominations open for the 2016 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

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Nominations are now open for the 2016 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, June 20, 2016, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering
  2. Social Sciences (note: history is classed within the humanities and is not a field of competition in 2016)

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2016, are eligible. The fields of competition for 2017 will be humanities/fine arts and biological and life sciences.

Nominations must be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on June 20, 2016; e-mail nominations to gradschool@mtu.edu are preferred.  Contact Debra Charlesworth (gradschool@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition.

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