Alumni Association Dissertation Award
The Alumni Association Dissertation Award provides funding and recognition to outstanding full-time doctor of philosophy students whose dissertations will have the greatest impact. In addition, students must demonstrate outstanding academic and personal potential in areas of extracurricular and professional activities. This award is considered to be among the most prestigious available to Penn State graduate students and recognizes outstanding achievement in scholarship and professional accomplishment.
To be eligible, students must have completed all coursework, language requirements, and the comprehensive exam. Students must have received approval of the dissertation topic and be within their final year of enrollment (student must be registered for SUBJ 601 or nine credits). Students should be graduating in the following spring, summer or fall semesters. Fall graduates must apply the fall semester one year prior to their graduation as they must be enrolled in the subsequent spring semester to receive the award, if they are selected as a recipient.
Nominations are solicited from doctoral programs at Penn State and are forwarded to a selection committee. From the pool of qualified nominations, a minimum of two awards are made for each of the following categories: Arts and Humanities; Social Sciences - Applied and Basic; Physical and Computational Sciences - Applied and Basic; Life and Health Sciences; and Engineering. Funds for this award do not replace existing college or departmental support and are disbursed directly into the recipients' accounts.
University employees receiving educational privileges are not eligible for this University scholarship/award in accordance with Penn State policies HR36 and HR38.
Applications/nominations for the upcoming academic year will open in the August time frame.
Students may apply directly or faculty/staff may nominate a student. Please contact your college graduate education office for important information, attachments and nomination link contained in email announcement.
For more information please contact the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards Administration.
2023–24
- Dima Abu-Aridah, Architecture, College of Arts and Architecture
- Corinne Lajoie, Philosophy with a dual title in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, College of The Liberal Arts
- Maria Rovito, American Studies, Penn State Harrisburg
- Katie P. Bernhard, Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management with a dual title in Transdisciplinary Research on Environment and Society, College of Health and Human Development
- Mengqi Liao, Mass Communications, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications
- Mason Breitzig, Epidemiology, College of Medicine
- Mayura Dhamdhere, Biomedical Sciences with a dual title in Clinical and Translational Sciences, College of Medicine
- Meredith Persico, Horticulture, College of Agricultural Sciences
- Gavin Rackoff, Psychology, College of the Liberal Arts
- Haoyang Chen, Bioengineering
- Myoung Hwan Kim, Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
- Marius Jürgensen, Physics, Eberly College of Science
- Divya Singh, Physics, Eberly College of Science
Arts & Humanities
Social Sciences
Life & Health Sciences
Engineering
Physical & Computational Sciences
2022–23
- Ali Ghazvinian, Doctoral student in Architecture