Dissertation and Thesis Awards – UW Graduate School Skip to content

Dissertation and Thesis Awards

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the following 2024 awards: 

  1. Distinguished Thesis Awards  
  2. Distinguished Dissertation Awards  
  3. Internal nominations for the WAGS/ProQuest Innovation in Technology Award 

Nominations are due 5 p.m. PST, May 2, 2024. In fairness to all nominators, this is a firm deadline; no exceptions or extensions will be granted.      

Please send questions and/or submissions to graddean@uw.edu.  

Recipients

The Graduate School is pleased to recognize the following recipients of the Distinguished Dissertation and Thesis Awards, which recognize outstanding and exceptional scholarship and research at the doctoral and master’s levels.

Thesis Dissertation Awards History

Dissertation

  • Biological Sciences – Karly Cohen, Biology:  “Homodonty and heterodonty: an iconoclastic view of teeth”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Nobuko Horikawa, Asian Languages and Literature:  “The Sinitic Poetry of the Zen Abbess Taisei Shōan (1668-1712)”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Xuhai Xu, Information Science:  “Computational Support for Longitudinal Well-Being”
  • Social Sciences – Isaac Javier Rivera, Geography: “Mapping the Terms of Freedom & the Ongoing Refusal of Settler Imaginaries”

Thesis

  • Biological & Life Sciences – Lydia Haile, Global Health: “Asthma Prevalence, Severity, and Nonfatal Burden by Race/Ethnicity in the United States: A Bayesian Meta-Regression Analysis”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Svetlana Ostroverkhova, Slavic Languages and Literature: “The Guises of Prince Myshkin: Genuineness and Artificiality”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Matt Guo, Electrical and Computer Engineering: “RHL-Butterfly: A Scalable Virtualized Breadboard Solution for FPGAs and Remote Laboratories”
  • Social Science – Xiaoqi Bao, Geography: “Balancing the quantitative/qualitative divide: A rhythmanalytic review of Seattle’s Black-Owned Restaurants’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021)”

Dissertation

  • Biological Sciences – Caitlin Cornell, Chemistry:  “Lipid Membranes: From Organizational Strategies in Cells to the Origins of Life”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Jocelyn Mory, Music:  “Recentering the Borderlands: Matepe as Sacred Technology from the Mutapa State to the Age of Vapostori”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Kathryn Neugent, Astronomy:  “The Binary Fraction of Red Supergiants”
  • Social Sciences – Rico Neumann, Communication: “Identities that divide, identities that unite: News portrayals of intergroup encounters and their effects on outgroup orientations”

Thesis

  • Biological & Life Sciences – Jennifer Brown, Epidemiology: “Structural Factors and Racial Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity: An Examination of State-Level Indicators of Structural Racism and Severe Maternal Morbidity Among Black and White Persons in the U.S., 2009-2011”
  • Social Sciences – Meagan Ellishia Doll, Communication: “Interpreting Peace Journalism in East Africa: Individual, Organizational, and Professional Influences “
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Felix Schwock, Electrical and Computer Engineering: “Statistical Analysis of Wind- and Rain-generated Ocean Ambient Noise in the Northeast Pacific Continental Margin”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – John Carlyle, Asian Languages & Literature: “Common Yue: A Comparative Study of Yue Dialect Historical Phonology”

Dissertation

  • Biological Sciences – Lexi Walls, Biochemistry:  “Understanding coronavirus fusion through structure”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Lin Hongxuan, History:  “Ummah Yet Proletariat: Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915–1959”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Daniel Lee, Molecular Engineering:  “Synthesis of novel backbone functional polymers”
  • Social Sciences – Ashley Ruba, Psychology: “The Development of Emotion Understanding in Infancy”

Thesis

  • Biological & Life Sciences – Charlton Callender, Public Health: “U.S. national, state and county-level trends in fertility and maternal mortality from 1980-2014”
  • Social Sciences – Charles Kiene, Communication: “Challenges and Adaptations to Technological Change in Online Communities”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – N/A
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – N/A

Dissertation

  • Biological Sciences – Jason Miklas, Bioengineering:  “The role of metabolism in cardiomyocyte maturation, disease and regeneration”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Michael Aguirre, History:  “The wages of borders: Political economy, labor activism, and racial formation in the Imperial-Mexicali borderlands, 1937-1979”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Brett Morris, Astronomy:  “The effects of stellar magnetic activity and variability on observations of exoplanets”
  • Social Sciences – Anissa Tanweer, Communications: “Data science of the social: How the practice is responding to ethical crisis and spreading across sectors”

Thesis

  • Biology & Life Sciences – Lily Alexander, Global Health: “Utilization of hospital-based second-trimester abortion in Mexico”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – N/A
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – N/A
  • Social Sciences – Connor Gilroy, Sociology: “How distinct is gay neighborhood change? Patterns and variations in gayborhood trajectories”

Dissertation

  • Biological Sciences – Aaron McKenna, Genome Sciences:  “Whole organism lineage tracing by combinatorial and cumulative genome editing”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Quin’Nita Cobbins, History:  “Black Emeralds:  African American Women’s Political Activism and Leadership in Seattle, 1940-2000”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Michael Barbour, Mechanical Engineering:  “Computational and Experimental Investigation into the Hemodynamics of Endovascularly Treated Cerebral Aneurysms”
  • Social Sciences – Allison Kelly, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, “Improving REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) Programs”

Thesis

  • Biology & Life Sciences – N/A
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Eileen Dolores Tomczuk, Museology:  “From Exhibit to Action:  The Impact of Museum Experiences on Visitors’’ Social Justice Actions”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Sean Ghods, Materials Science and Engineering: “Design of Biomimetic Armor Based on Strain Rate Sensitive Natural Dermal Armor”
  • Social Sciences – Charles Lanfear, Sociology: “Disorder in the Neighborhood: A Large-Scale Field Experiment on Disorder, Norm Violation, and Pro-Social Behavior”

Dissertation

  • Biological Sciences –Tatiana M. Anderson, Graduate Program in Neuroscience: “We must inspire before we expire”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Florentina Dedu-Constantin, French and Italian Studies: “The Good Distance: Proust and Sociability”
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Tong Zhang, Electrical Engineering: “Integrated Wideband Self-Interference Cancellation Techniques for FDD and Full-duplex Wireless Communication”
  • Social Sciences – Aaron S. Erlich, Political Science: “The Political Economy of Information Provision in Developing Democracies”

Thesis

  • Biology & Life Sciences – Matthew M. Coates, Global Health:  “Quantifying Selection Bias from Birth History Estimates of Child Mortality“
  • Humanities & Fine Arts –  N/A
  • Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering – Jan Wittenbecher, Mechanical Engineering: “Contributions to the Analysis and Design of Mechanical Systems for a Series Hybrid Chevrolet Camaro”
  • Social Sciences – Katherine K. O’Neill, Sociology:  “The Adolescent Empathy Paradox and Juvenile Offending:  Why Sex Differences in Empathic Ability Can Explain the Gender Gap in Juvenile Offending Behavior”

Dissertation

  • Biology & Life Sciences – Kenneth Mugwanya, Epidemiology: “Safety of oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate-based pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention: prospective studies in HIV-uninfected men and women”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – Elizabeth Brown, English: “Pedagogies of US. Imperialism: Racial Education from Reconstruction to the Progressive Era”
  • Physical Sciences & Engineering – Nicola Dell, Computer Science & Engr: “Mobile Camera-Based Systems for Low-Resource Settings”
  • Social Sciences – Timothy Scharks, Public Policy & Governance:  “Threatening Messages in Climate Change Communication”

Thesis

  • Social Sciences – Yuan Hsiao, Sociology
  • Biological Sciences – Kelly Walters, Global Health

Dissertation

  • Biology & Life Sciences – Tracy Larson, Biology: “From Genetics to Behavior, the Dynamics and Mechanisms of Adult Neurogenesis in a Sensorimotor Circuit”
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – n/a
  • Physical Sciences & Engineering – Sarah Purkey, Oceanography:  “The Abyssal Ocean’s Contributions to the Global Energy and Sea Level Budgets Between the 1990s and 2000s”
  • Social Sciences – Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, Sociology:  “Effects of Prolonged and Timing-Specific Exposure to Neighborhood Disadvantage during Childhood and Adolescence on Health and Health Inequalities in Early Adulthood”

Thesis

  • Biology & Life Sciences – n/a
  • Humanities & Fine Arts – n/a
  • Physical Sciences & Engineering – n/a
  • Social Sciences – Nicole Ide, Public Health:  “Ascertaining Cause of Death in Dhulikhel, Nepal:  Medical records and Verbal Autopsy”
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Dissertation

  • Andrew Adey, Genome Sciences:  “Comprehensive, Precision Genomics”

Thesis

  • Elizabeth Anderson, Landscape Architecture:  “Deconstructing Hydrologies: Reviving the memory of water in Dumbarton Oaks Park”

Dissertation

  • Saleema Amershi, Computer Science & Engineering:  “Designing for Effective End-User Interaction with Machine Learning”

Thesis

  • Dylan High, Museology:  “Ethnic Identity Formation in Adolescence:  Impact of Teen Programs in Museums”

Dissertation (co-awardees)

  • Rene Heffron, Epidemiology: “Contraception, fertility planning and HIV-1 risk among African HIV-1 serodiscordant couples”
  • Jon Froehlich, Computer Science & Engineering:  “Sensing and Feedback of Everyday Activities to Promote Environmental Behaviors”

Thesis

  • Tavis Mulder, Comparative Literature:  “Terror and Totality: Realism in Juan José Saer’s Glosa“

Dissertation

  • Aurelia Honerkamp-Smith, Chemistry:  “Static and Dynamic Properties of Critical Fluctuations in Lipid Bilayers”

Thesis

  • Maria Grigoryeva, Sociology:  “Parenting, Child Disclosure, and Delinquency: A Structural Equation Panel Model.”

Dissertation

  • Emily Walton, Sociology: “Exploring the Effects of Residential Segregation on Health Outcomes Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups”

Thesis

  • Jason Scullion, Forest Resources and Public Affairs:  “The Political Ecology of Payments of Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Coatepec, Mexico”

Dissertation

  • Jonathan Carlson, Computer Science & Engineering:  “Phylogenetic Dependency Networks:  Inferring Genetic Patterns of Adaptation in HIV”

Thesis

  • Yegor Malinovskiy, Civil & Environmental Engineering:  “Occlusion robust and environment insensitive algorithm for vehicle detection and tracking using surveillance video cameras”

Dissertation

  • Mona Atia, Geography: “Building a House in Heaven:  Islamic Charity in Neoliberal Egypt”

Thesis

  • C. Pascal Clark, Electrical Engineering:  “Distortion-Free Coherent Modulation Filtering and Interpolation of Long Gaps in Acoustic Signals”