These awards recognize outstanding and exceptional scholarship and research at the doctoral level. Nominations are due by 5 p.m. PST, May 1, 2025. Each recipient will receive an honorarium of $1,000.
Call for Nominations
The Graduate School is pleased to announce the 2025 Distinguished Dissertation Awards competition in the following four categories:
- Biological/Life Sciences*
- Humanities and Fine Arts* (Please note that for purposes of this competition, history is classed within the humanities)
- Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering
- Social Sciences
*CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award 2025 fields of competition.
These awards recognize outstanding and exceptional scholarship and research at the doctoral level. Nominations are due by 5 p.m. PST, May 1, 2025.
Eligibility
The date of degree award must fall within the period of July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, inclusive, for the nominee selected. To be eligible, the nominee’s dissertation must be available in the ProQuest depository, no exceptions.
Formatting
For all documents, fonts are to be no smaller than 11-point and margins no narrower than one inch. We will strictly observe page-length limits and formatting guidelines.
Nomination packet materials
Step 1
Please provide information about the nominee, the nominating department, etc. via this Microsoft Form.
Step 2
Combine the following materials into a single Adobe PDF file, observing the strict page limit of each component:
- A non-technical summary (NTS) addressing the purpose, methods, results of the research and its significance within the discipline of this dissertation. An NTS is a concise document that provides a description of the process and its findings in a manner that is both appealing to read and easily understood by the general public. The NTS must not exceed two pages, typed and double-spaced. Please include the nominee’s name and doctoral program on this page. For more guidance, consult the Graduate School’s guide to “elevator speeches.”
- An abstract of the nominee’s dissertation (not to exceed five double-spaced pages). Appendices containing nontextual material, such as charts or tables, may be included as optional, additional pages (not to exceed five pages). All pages should be numbered, and each should bear the name of the nominee.
- Three letters of recommendation evaluating the significance and quality of the nominee’s dissertation work. One of these letters is to be from the nominee’s dissertation supervisor, another from a member of the nominee’s dissertation committee, and the third from a person of the nominee’s choice.
- The nominee’s curriculum vitae (not to exceed five pages)
Step 3
Degree-granting units (as classified by MyGrad) are limited to only one nomination per award category. We will only accept nominations submitted by the department chair, Graduate Program Advisor or Graduate Program Coordinator. Please send nominations to graddean@uw.edu by 5 p.m. PST, May 1, 2025. This is a firm deadline; in fairness to all nominators, no exceptions or extensions will be granted. No incomplete nominations will be considered. There is a limit of one submission per award category per degree-granting unit (as classified by MyGrad).
Please save your file in this format:
LASTNAMENOMINEE – Nominating Department – Dissertation – [Category] – 2025.pdf
Ex: SONG – Astrobiology – Dissertation – Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering – 2025.pdf
Criteria
A Graduate School committee will select the award recipients. The nominated dissertations should represent original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the disciplines.
Both methodological and substantive quality will be judged. Nominations will be evaluated on the following:
- Innovation: The degree of innovation, creativity and insight shown by the author.
- Scope: The scope and importance of the work to the department and to the field.
- Writing: The effectiveness of the writing (including whether it is written in language that is reasonably understandable to faculty in related disciplines).
Awards
Each recipient will receive an honorarium of $1,000 and will be publicly recognized by the Graduate School.
Council of Graduate Schools Distinguished Dissertation Award national competition
2025 UW Graduate Schools distinguished dissertation award materials will be forwarded to the Council of Graduate Schools/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award competition when the awardees’ dissertations fall within the current year’s fields of competition as the UW’s institutional nominations for this prestigious recognition.
The 2025 fields of competition are Biological/Life Sciences and Humanities and Fine Arts.
Note:
For the purposes of this competition, history is classed within the humanities. Consult the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award page for more clarification regarding which fields/disciplines are included under the above categories.
Address nomination materials c/o:
Joy Williamson-Lott
Dean of The Graduate School
Questions?
Jerry Pangilinan, graddean@uw.edu
Executive Assistant to the Dean of The Graduate School