Dean’s Dissertation Award

• An announcement is sent to schools in early August and early January.
• Each program may nominate at least one candidate; additionally, the number of students nominated per school must not exceed the greater of 10% of the average number of PhD graduates over the past three years or the number of programs.
  • The nomination allocation is the total number of nominations that may be submitted for the academic year over two award cycles (August and January). Schools may decide how to allocate their submissions for each award cycle.
  • Nominees must be a Ph.D. candidate at the date of submission of the nomination.
  • Graduation windows for the two award periods are defined in the Introduction.
• The internal selection process is left up to each individual school.
• Nominations to the Dean’s office will be sent by the director of each school.
• Nominations for the two award periods are due in September and February. See the Submission of Application section for specific dates.

• Letter of nomination from the dissertation advisor, clearly indicating date of completion of comprehensive examination and/or dissertation proposal/prospectus examination. The nomination should address specifically the criteria listed in the Introduction. Nomination letters may not exceed 3 pages.
• An abstract of the dissertation limited to one page, including title, overview, broader impacts, and intellectual merit.
• A curriculum vitae (CV) of the candidate, including a list of publications that clearly distinguishes publications related to and not related to the dissertation research. The CV may not exceed 4 pages.
• A personal statement from the candidate, limited to one page, outlining why the candidate believes they should receive this award, specifically addressing the criteria listed in the Introduction.
• One letter of recommendation from a faculty member other than the dissertation advisor, who may be in or out of the candidate’s school, but typically within ASU. The letter should address specifically the criteria listed in the first paragraph.

Nominations to the Dean’s office will be sent by the director of each school.

School directors should submit nominations for the nomination window to Hahnna Christianson ([email protected]) by the nomination deadline below. 

The Executive Committee will then review the materials for recommendation to the dean, and the final decisions will be made by the dean.

Nomination deadlines

January nomination window deadline: February 27, 2026.

August nomination window deadline: October 9, 2026.

• Winners are announced by the dean.
• Winners will be recognized at the Fulton Schools PhD Convocation ceremonies in fall and spring.

• Based on the number of applications, the Executive Committee (EC) will determine how many reviews each application will receive. Assignments will be based on knowledge of the dissertation topic and with a goal to distribute among schools. EC members will score each application on a scale of 1 – 5 based on the criteria listed in the first paragraph. These scores will be recorded in a spreadsheet, discussed and ranked during a committee meeting.
• The EC will send a ranking of the received nominations to the dean. This could be based on categories, e.g., highly competitive / competitive / not competitive and/or include a numerical ranking in the top categories.