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Best Dissertation Award

Eligibility

The Best Dissertation Award recognizes two graduating doctoral students from the Cullen College of Engineering who has performed outstanding research and submitted the best dissertations to the College in terms of scholarship, presentation and organization. The first place recipient receives an honorarium of $1,000. The second place recipient receives an honorarium of $500.

View Past Winners

 

Deadlines for Application

Fall 2025, Spring 2026, and Summer 2026 Graduate: Wednesday, September 16, 2026, to the department.

 

Nomination Procedure

  1. The award will be given once during the academic year. There will be two awards; first place and second place. The call for award nomination will be made in mid-August. The nomination package will be due to the departments on September 16, 2026.
  2. The dissertation must have been defended and be signed off by all members of the examination committee.
  3. To avoid conflict of interest, a Department representative on the College committee cannot be the advisor or co-advisor of their Department’s nominee or any other nominee.
  4. During the College selection meeting, all nominations will be presented by the Department representatives. The final selections will be based on the votes given by the committee.
  5. The nomination package is to be comprised of the following items:
    • Nomination form
    • Nomination Letter from Major Professor
    • Link to the dissertation
    • Include the PDF of the first page of up to four papers that are directly associated with the dissertation research and a link to the full version of the papers. A page summarizing each of the paper’s relevance to the dissertation should be added.
    • A two-page CV; the CV can include papers other than those directly associated with the dissertation research. However, the list of publications must be divided into separate sub-sections; papers that are associated with the dissertation research; and others that are the result of other research the student conducted during their graduate studies (including collaborative efforts for example).
    • A link to a five minutes-long video created by the student, in which the thesis and the original research contribution is summarized. The College committee should watch the presentations before the selection meeting. Please make sure your video is within the five-minute time limit.

 

Selection and Announcement of Awards

Each department will nominate a faculty to the college committee responsible for selecting the award winners. Selection will be based on the originality and importance of the research, and the potential for the student to make a significant contribution to the discipline. The Award will be announced via College communications.