The Outstanding Dissertation Award was established in 1979 by the Graduate School to recognize exceptional work by doctoral students and to encourage the highest levels of scholarship, research, and writing.
The Michael H. Granof Award will be given in 2024 to recognize the University’s top dissertation. The recipient of this year’s award will be selected from one of the three dissertation winners. The Granof Award is considered the top graduate student award. All prizes will be announced in spring of 2024.
Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) chairpersons nominate one doctoral student from their programs for the award. Winners are selected in three categories:
- Area A — Humanities and Fine Arts
- Area B — Social Sciences, Business and Education
- Area C — Mathematics, Engineering, Physical Sciences, and Biological and Life Sciences
A dissertation may be considered in only one competition category. Select the category most appropriate to the topic and methodology of the nominated dissertation.
Professional & Student Awards
Awards Open:
November 1, 2023
Awards Close:
February 12, 2024
Questions
If you have questions, email
Dean Jim Cox.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the 2024 award, the dissertation must meet one of the following criteria:
- It will be submitted in final form to the Graduate School by April 2024 for a degree to be awarded in May 2024.
- It was submitted for a degree awarded in August 2023 or December 2023.
- It was submitted after April 2023, for a degree awarded in May 2023.
Nominations
The Graduate School's Online Awards System
Nominations must be submitted using the Graduate School’s online awards system. Nominators are required to solicit all required documentation from their respective nominees and to upload it on the nominee’s behalf.
To complete the online application, collect the following:
- A nomination letter from the chairperson of the GSC briefly describing why the dissertation was chosen for nomination by the program
- Two letters of support from among the following:
- The dissertation supervisor
- The graduate adviser
- The department chair
- A committee member
- One copy of the dissertation, including the abstract
Evaluation
The faculty review committees will consider both the methodological and substantive aspects of the dissertations, including the:
- Importance/impact of the subject;
- Originality/creativity of the work;
- Quality of the scholarship;
- Potential for publishing;
- Organization of the dissertation;
- Quality of the writing; and
- Other appropriate factors that denote excellence.
Individuals writing letters of support should be encouraged to keep these criteria in mind as they comment on the significance/major contribution of the dissertation and the particular aspects of the dissertation that distinguish it.
2023 Award Recipients

Will Burg, Ph.D.
Michael H. Granof Award winner
Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dissertation Title: Collective Quantum States in Twist Controlled Graphene Heterostructures

Alex Diamond
Program: Sociology
Dissertation Title: An Uncomfortable Peace: Everyday State Formation in Colombia’s Peace Laboratory Sociology

Augusta Lynn Dell'Omo, Ph.D.
Program: History
Dissertation Title: Saving Apartheid: Transatlantic Whiteness in the U.S.-South African Relationship, 1980-1994