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University Honors Graduate Students for Excellence in Research, Teaching
Office of Graduate Studies Launches New Dissertation Awards Program

Sujeet Patole and Wenwen Huo were awarded David E. Daniel Graduate Fellowships

The inaugural winners of the Office of Graduate Studies Best Dissertation Awards were honored at an April reception. They are, from left, Micaela Chan MS'12, PhD'16, Sergey Lebedev PhD'16, Monica Salazar PhD'16, Frederico Silva de Araujo PhD'16, Laura Jackson, Michael Andreen MFA'10 and Yuan Zhang.

In recognition of excellence among doctoral students, The University of Texas at Dallas' Office of Graduate Studies has introduced an awards program honoring the top doctoral dissertation in each school.

Winners of the inaugural 2017 Best Dissertation Award were announced at an April reception celebrating excellence in graduate education.

The recipients are:

Two students earned the David E. Daniel Graduate Fellowship, which is supported by an endowment established in 2006 by the former UT Dallas president. The award recognizes an exceptional doctoral student each year in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Recipients of the David E. Daniel Graduate Fellowship are, from left, Wenwen Huo, molecular and cell biology, and Sujeet Patole, electrical engineering.

Recipients of the David E. Daniel Graduate Fellowship are Wenwen Huo (left), molecular and cell biology, and Sujeet Patole, electrical engineering.

The recipients were Sujeet Patole in electrical engineering and Wenwen Huo in molecular and cell biology.

Two students who previously received Best Teaching Assistant Awards from their schools also were recognized at the event: Kevin Wells in the School of Arts and Humanities and Nimmy Mammoottil in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

“Congratulations to all the award winners,” said Dr. Marion Underwood, dean of graduate studies and Ashbel Smith Professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. “Their hard work and creativity earned them this honor and, I believe, will serve them well in their future endeavors.”

UT Dallas awards about 190 doctoral and professional degrees each year across 31 disciplines in seven schools. 

“These students highlight the quality of graduate education throughout UT Dallas’ programs, which is vitally important for enhancing our reputation as a prominent research university,” Underwood said.

2017 Best Dissertation Awards

School of Arts and Humanities

Monica Salazar PhD'16, humanities – aesthetic studies

Title: “Death and the Invisible Hand: Contemporary Mexican Art, 1988-Present”

School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication

Michael Andreen MFA'10, arts and technology

Title: “Choice in Digital Games: A Taxonomy of Choice Types Applied to Player Agency and Identity”

School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Micaela Chan MS'12, PhD'16, cognition and neuroscience

Title: “Age-Related Desegregation of Functional Systems in Healthy Adults: The Underlying Patterns of Connections and Protective Life-Course Factors”

School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences

Laura Jackson, public affairs

Title: “Toward A Theory of Local Elections: Building a Theoretical Framework By Analyzing School Bond Elections”

Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Fred Araujo PhD'16, software engineering

Title: “Engineering Cyber-Deceptive Software”

Naveen Jindal School of Management

Sergey Lebedev PhD'16, international management studies

Title: “Institutions, Relations, and Firm-Level Outcomes”

School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Yuan Zhang, mathematical sciences (statistics)

Title: “Detecting Rare Haplotype-Environment Interaction Under Uncertainty of Gene-Environment Independence Assumption with an Extension to Complex Sampling Data”

Best Teaching Assistant Award

School of Arts and Humanities

Kevin Wells, humanities – studies in literature

School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Nimmy Mammoottil, chemistry

Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].