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The Graduate School at the University of Missouri–Columbia (Mizzou)

Distinguished Thesis and Dissertation Awards

The Graduate School is pleased to call for nominations for MU's annual Graduate School Distinguished Master's Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation Awards. These awards recognize the outstanding research and creative accomplishments of MU graduate students.

The recipient of the Distinguished Master's Thesis Award will receive a $500 honorarium. The recipient of the Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award will receive a $1,000 honorarium. In addition, the winning thesis and dissertation will become MU's nominations for one of two prestigious awards: the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools' Distinguished Master's Thesis, and the Council of Graduate Schools' Distinguished Dissertation Award (if the award winner is in one of the disciplines identified for competition in 2010 - Humanities/Arts or Biology/Sciences. If the award winner is in a different discipline, we will nominate the top-ranked dissertation in Humanities/Arts or Biology/Sciences).

We are excited to be able to showcase the important scholarly contributions made by our graduate students, and we ask your help in making your faculty colleagues and students aware of these awards. Please post the attached announcements in a prominent place or distribute copies, and encourage your colleagues to nominate the work of their outstanding graduate students.

Deadlines for nominations:

  • Thesis Award - October 1, 2009
  • Dissertation Award - February 1, 2010

Distinguished Master's Thesis Award

The vice provost for advanced studies and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri is soliciting nominations for the 2009 MU Graduate School Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award. This award has been established to recognize and reward distinguished scholarship and research at the master’s level.

Guidelines

  1. Each department or area program that offers a master’s degree may submit one nomination. Each nomination requires the written endorsement of the department/area program director of graduate studies.
  2. A nominee must have been awarded the master’s degree in December 2008, May 2009 or August 2009. Since the intent of the competition is to recognize scholarship by students who are pursuing their first graduate research degree, individuals who received a Ph.D. (or comparable research degree) in any discipline prior to writing the master’s thesis are not eligible. However, recipients of a first professional degree (MD, DVM, JD, M. Arch.) awarded prior to the writing of the thesis may be nominated.
  3. Nominations should be submitted in electronic format on flash drive, CD, DVD, or by email attachment to manleyj@missouri.edu. The nomination should include:

    a) electronic copy of the thesis (in Word, RTF, or PDF format)
    b)the written endorsement of the department/area program’s director of graduate studies
    c) a letter from the faculty advisor/mentor describing the thesis’s contribution to scholarship
    d) a two-page description of the study and its contribution to the field/discipline in language that can be readily grasped by scholars working in other disciplines. The description must contain the title of the thesis and the author's name.
    e)a 10-page, double-spaced discussion of the thesis, specifying its aims, reasons the student was interested in the topic, methods/approach, results/findings, conclusions, and significance of the work for the discipline.

  4. Nominations will be judged on: (a) clarity of writing, (b) scholarship, (c) methods or approach, (d) contributions to the field.
  5. The nomination disk must be received by the Graduate School no later than October 1, 2009 and should be sent to:

    Dr. Teresa M. Cooney, Faculty Fellow
    Graduate School
    210 Jesse Hall, Columbia, MO 65211

The Graduate Faculty Senate Awards Committee will evaluate the nominations and determine the recipient of the award. The recipient will receive an honorarium of $500 at the Graduate School's awards reception on April 21, 2010. In addition, the awardee's thesis will become the institutional nomination for the Midwestern Association of Graduate School Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award.

Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award

The vice provost for advanced studies and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri is soliciting from dissertation faculty advisors for its 2009 MU Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Award. This award has been established to reward distinguished scholarship and research at the doctoral level. Nominated dissertations should represent original work which makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline. Both methodological and substantive quality will be judged.

Guidelines

  1. The effective date of the degree award or the completion of doctoral degree requirements and dissertation must be in May 2009, August 2009, or December 2009
  2. Nominations should be submitted in electronic format on CD, DVD, or by email attachment to manleyj@missouri.edu. The nomination should include:
    3. a. An abstract. The abstract should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages. In addition, appendices containing non-textual material, such as charts or tables, may be included. The pages should be numbered and each should bear the name of the nominee.
    b. 3 letters of support. These letters should evaluate the significance and quality of the dissertation work. One letter is to be from the nominee's dissertation supervisor, another from an additional member of the nominee’s dissertation committee, and a third from an expert of the nominee's choice from within or outside the university. Letters not originally in electronic form should be scanned and included on the nomination disk or as an email attachment.
  3. The nomination disk or email attachments must be received by the Graduate School no later than February 1, 2010. A small number of finalists will be selected from among the nominees. The complete dissertations of those finalists will be reviewed by the Graduate Faculty Senate Awards Committee. Materials should be sent to:

  • Dr. Teresa M. Cooney, Faculty Fellow
    Graduate School
    210 Jesse Hall
    University of Missouri
    Columbia MO 65211
    manleyj@missouri.edu (for attachments)

The recipient will receive an honorarium of $1,000, which will be given at the Graduate School’s awards reception on April 21, 2010. In addition, when the awardee’s dissertation falls within the current year’s field of competition for the Council of Graduate Schools’ Distinguished Dissertation Award, it will become the MU institutional nomination for this prestigious recognition. If the selected dissertation does not fall within those areas, the top-ranked dissertation in the competition from one of those areas will be submitted as our institutional nomination.