Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2007

To: Department and Program Chairs

From: Janet A. Weiss
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs - Graduate Studies, and
Dean of the Graduate School

Date: September 18, 2007

I am pleased to invite nominations for the Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2007 and to ask you to bring this call for nominations to the attention of the faculty in your department or program. I write also on behalf of our generous sponsor, UMI Dissertation Publishing, a division of ProQuest.

The purpose of the awards, each of which includes a $1,000 honorarium, 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. This special award gives us an opportunity to celebrate the splendid diversity of scholarly interests examined and explored by our talented doctoral students. We seek nominations from a broad range of academic disciplines. To qualify for consideration, a nominee must have completed the dissertation and earned the doctoral degree during the 2007 calendar year. Up to eight awards will be made. Please see the attached sheet for instructions. The deadline for nominations will be Friday, November 16, 2007.

The student’s department or program must endorse nominations. This ensures that all nominations have broad faculty support and also puts decisions between two or more nominees from the same unit where they belong — in the hands of the faculty.

I hope you and your faculty colleagues will make a special effort to nominate students who have produced or are close to finishing an outstanding thesis. Please also accept my invitation to attend the awards ceremony, which will take place on Thursday, April 24, 2008. This public celebration of distinguished young scholars is always a pleasure to attend. Details will be sent to you at a later date.

I look forward to your reply and thank you in advance for your help.

Distinguished Dissertation Awards of 2007