ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards
Nominations for the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards are now submitted directly through our website. This may require some changes in the way nominators put together the dossiers. Please read through this site before you begin the nomination process.
The purpose of the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards is to recognize exceptional and unusually interesting work produced by doctoral students in the last phase of their graduate work. The nominees’ overall academic accomplishments will also be taken into account.
- General Information
- Guidelines for the Preparation of Nominations
- Distinguished Dissertation Award Winners
General Information
Eligibility
The nominee must have completed the dissertation and have been awarded or will be awarded the doctoral degree during the 2012 calendar year: May 2012, August 2012, and December 2012. Students enrolled in dual degree programs who have completed the dissertation but who have not yet met all the degree requirements for the second degree are also eligible. Students whose degree will not be conferred until May 2013 are not eligible, even if they gave their final defense during fall 2012. Nominations from a broad range of academic disciplines are desired.
Review Process
A faculty review committee identifies the finalists and the members of the Michigan Society of Fellows make the final selections. Up to eight nominees will be selected to receive the award, which includes a $1,000 honorarium. The reviewers also have the option of assigning Honorable Mention.
Deadline and submission
The nomination deadline for the 2012 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards is November 14, 2012.
For more information contact:
Pat McCune, Ph.D.
Senior Program Manager
915 East Washington Street
1130 Rackham
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1070
Telephone: 936-1647; E-mail: faculty-awards@umich.edu
Guidelines for the Preparation of Nominations
The complete instructions for submitting a nomination for this award, and the FAQ for the general process of submitting nominations online, are available here as well as on the separate nomination website.
Listed below are the seven items that must be included in the dossier before the nomination can be submitted. You will be asked to either enter text into text boxes or online forms, or upload document in Adobe PDF format.
Before you begin, please read the sections about requesting and submitting letters of support below. These letters should not be sent to you but rather submitted directly by the letter writer electronically through a separate website.
A nomination dossier can be set up by a U-M faculty or staff member. Up to six others may be given access to the site by the person who opens the dossier on the website. After a nomination dossier is started the nominator(s) and assistant(s) may login to the faculty awards nomination systems as many times as needed in order to complete the nomination.
Nomination Process
The nominations must be submitted by the chair of the student’s department or program. Each department should make only one nomination; two may be accepted if the department can argue persuasively that the dissertations are distinctly different in intellectual content. Note: Award winners will be selected by a broad group of faculty, including non-specialists. Therefore, nominators should explain the contributions of the work clearly. Each nomination should be submitted via the website and should include the following items:
Contact Information Form
Provide in the online form all the contact information requested for the nominee, nominator and department contact.
Letter of Nomination (Nomination Statement)
Each nomination must have a letter of nomination as described below. On the letter, please note the nominee’s name, department or program, and the title of his/her dissertation. The statement should be presented in distinct sections that speak to each of the following topics, in the order of the headings listed below:
The nomination letter may be no longer than two pages (1,350 words) in length.
- Description
- A brief description of the topic
- General comments
- General comments about the nominee, including his or her overall scholarly credentials
- Innovation
- The degree of innovation, creativity, and insight shown by the author
- Scope
- The scope and importance of the work to the department and to the field
- Writing
- The effectiveness of the writing (including whether it is written in language that is reasonably understandable to faculty in related disciplines)
Letters of Support
Do not have the letters of support sent to you. These letters must be submitted by the writers directly to the nomination dossier through a separate website. Writers will be asked to either enter text into an online form, or upload documents in Adobe PDF format.
When you contact the letter writer with your request, direct him/her to https://secure.rackham.umich.edu/Faculty/support/ and provide the writer with the UMID of the nominee and name of the award. On this website the writers will find directions for submitting the letter of support for your nominee.
Once the letters have been sent into the website you will be able to read them in the nomination dossier and then select which letters you actually want to include when you submit the nomination. Only the letters you have selected will be seen by the review committee.
Nominations must include three (and only three) letters in support of the nominee from current and/or former professionals who have worked with the nominee. These letters should detail the nature and extent of the nominee’s work.
Each letter of support may be no longer than two pages (1,350 words) in length.
Complete and Current curriculum vitae
Include the nominee’s c.v. by uploading the most recent version in Adobe PDF format. (Note that while information provided in the c.v. may be provided elsewhere on this site, a complete and current c.v. must be supplied. Make certain that the c.v. contains the full details for all publications and presentations.)
Copy of the Dissertation Abstract
Include the nominee’s dissertation abstract by uploading the most recent version in Adobe PDF format.
Copy of the Unofficial Transcript
Include the nominee’s unofficial transcript by uploading the most recent version in Adobe PDF format.
Miscellaneous
Include a phonetic spelling of the nominee’s name and the title of her/his dissertation.
Finalists will be required to submit a bound copy of their dissertations to their nominating department so they can forward it on to the Rackham Graduate School. The dissertations will be returned once the final selections have been made.
ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2012
- Ellen Block
- Social Work and Anthropology
- Infected Kin: AIDS, Orphan Care, and the Family in Lesotho
- Joseph Braymer
- Chemistry
- Understanding the Roles of Metal Ions in the Fate of Reactive Oxygen Species and in Alzheimer’s Disease
- Dae-Hyun Kim
- Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
- Design Loads Generator: Estimation of Extreme Environmental Loadings for Ship and Offshore Applications
- Alwyn Lim
- Sociology
- The Global Expansion of Corporate Social Responsibility: Emergence, Diffusion, and Reception of Global Corporate Governance Frameworks
- Jinjin Ma
- Mechanical Engineering
- Experimental and Computational Characterizations of Native Ligaments, Tendons, and Engineered 3-D Bone-Ligament-Bone Constructs in the Knee
- Sven Nyholm
- Philosophy
- On the Universal Law and Humanity Formulas
- John Prensner
- Molecular and Cellular Pathology
- Discovery and Characterization of Long Noncoding RNAs in Prostate Cancer
- Rebecca Sears
- Classical Studies
- The Practical Muse: Reconstructing the Contexts of a Greek Musical Papyrus
- Laura Sherman
- Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Understanding Sources and Cycling of Mercury Using Mercury Stable Isotopes
- Yizao Wang
- Statistics
- Topics on Max-Stable Processes and the Central Limit Theorem
ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2011
- Remy Brim
- Pharmacology
- Investigations Into the Therapeutic Potential of a Bacterial Cocaine Esterase for the Treatment of Cocaine Toxicity and Cocaine Abuse
- Ksenya Gurshtein
- History of Art
- TransStates: Conceptual Art in Eastern Europe and the Limits of Utopia
- Daniel E. Horton
- Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Climate Dynamics of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age
- Kathryn Howell
- Psychology
- Assessing Resilience in Preschool Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: Utilizing Multiple Informants and Evaluating the Impact of the Preschool Kids’ Club Intervention
- Bin Hu
- Operations, Technology, and Innovation Management
- Essays on Procurement with Information Asymmetry
- Nathaniel Mills
- English
- Ragged Figures: The Lumpenproletariat in Nelson Algren and Ralph Ellison
- Christopher T. Nelson
- Materials Science and Engineering
- The Nanoscale Structure and Dynamic Properties of Ferroelectric Films
- Yi Xiang
- Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology
- Analysis of the Molecular Mechanism and Physiological Role of Golgi Stack Formation and Golgi Biogenesis
ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2010
- Alyson Jones
- Musicology
- Playing Out: Women Instrumentalists and Women’s Ensembles in Contemporary Tunisia
- Casie LeGette
- English Language & Literature
- The Past Jumps Up: British Radicals and the Remaking of Literary History 1790-1870
- Jamaal Matthews
- Education and Psychology
- Toward a Holistic Understanding of Academic Identification in Ethnic Minority Boys at Risk for Academic Failure
- Bobak Mosadegh
- Biomedical Engineering
- Design and Fabrication of Integrated Microfluidic Circuits Using Normally-Closed Elastomeric Valves
- Gustavo Patino
- Neuroscience
- Who moved my protein? Mechanisms of Epileptogenesis due to Mutations of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel SCN1B
- Christopher Roberts
- Public Policy and Sociology
- Exploring the Fractures within Human Rights: An Empirical Study of Resistance
- Kevin Tucker
- Mathematics
- Jumping Numbers and Multiplier Ideals on Algebraic Surfaces
- Feng Wang
- Biological Chemistry
- Structural Analyses of Telomere Associated Proteins
ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2009
- Eric W. Groenendyk
- Political Science
- The Motivated Partisan: A Dual Motivations Theory of Partisan Change and Stability
- Blair Allen Johnston
- Music Theory
- Harmony and Climax in the Late Works of Sergei Rachmaninoff
- Jasper F. Kok
- Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science
- Understanding Wind-Blown Sand and the Electrification of Granular Systems
- Eranda Nikolla
- Chemical Engineering
- Combined Experimental/Theoretical Approach Toward the Development of Carbon Tolerant Electrocatalysts for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Anodes
- Howard L. M. Nye
- Philosophy
- Ethics, Fitting Attitudes, and Practical Reason: A Theory of Normative Facts
- Robert Grant Rowe
- Cellular and Molecular Biology
- Differential Regulation of Two- and Three-Dimensional Cell Function
- Nathalie E. Williams
- Sociology
- Living With Conflict: The Effect of Community Organizations, Economic Assets, and Mass Media Consumption on Migration During Armed Conflict
- Ruth E. Zielinski
- Nursing
- Private Places – Private Shame: Women’s Genital Body Image and Sexual Health
ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2008
- Elizabeth Ben-Ishai
- Political Science
- The Autonomy-Fostering State: Citizenship and Social Service Delivery
- Todd Bryan
- School of Natural Resources and Environment
- Aligning Identity: Social Identity and Changing Context in Community-Based Environmental Conflict
- Kimberly Clum
- Social Work and Anthropology
- The Shadows of Immobility: Low-Wage Work, Single Mothers’ Lives, and Workplace Culture
- Lori Khatchadourian
- Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology
- Social Logics Under Empire: The Armenian ‘Highland Satrapy’ and Achaemenid Rule, CA. 600-300 BC
- Mark Kiel
- Cell & Developmental Biology
- Identification, Localization and Characterization of Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Their Niche
- Michelle Miller
- Romance Languages and Literatures
- Material Friendship: Service and Amity in Early Modern French Literature
- Matthew Schulmerich
- Chemistry
- Subsurface and Transcutaneous Raman Spectroscopy, Imaging, and Tomography
- Susan Sierra
- Mathematics
- The Geometry of Birationally Commutative Graded Domains
Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2007
- Xiaoyun Chen
- Chemistry
- Investigating Biointerfaces Using Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
- Francis Cody
- Anthropology
- Literacy as Enlightenment: Written Language, Activist Mediation, and the State in Rural Tomilnadu, India
- Catherine Rose Fortin
- Linguistics
- Indonesian Sluicing and Verb Phrase Ellipsis: Description and Explanation in a Minimalist Framework
- Emily Greenman
- Public Policy
- Intersecting Inequalities: Four Essays on Race, Immigration and Gender in the Contemporary United States
- Rebecca A. Haeusler
- Biological Chemistry
- tRNA Genes as Organizers of Genetic Information
- Hoyt J. Long
- Asian Languages and Cultures: Japanese
- On Uneven Ground: Provincializing Cultural Production in Interwar Japan
- David Lynn Moehring
- Physics
- Remote Entanglement of Trapped Atomic Ions
- Scott A. Tomlins
- Pathology
- Discovery and Characterization of Recurrent Gene Fusions in Prostate Cancer