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Sponsored by the
North Carolina State University Graduate School, the Thesis and Dissertation
Award program is designed to reward outstanding scholarly research and to
demonstrate the positive impact of graduate-level research on both the North
Carolina economy and the quality of life for all its citizens.
The Thesis and Dissertation Award program was established in honor of the late Nancy G. Pollock, who served as Thesis Editor for the NC State Graduate School for 30 years. During her long career in the Graduate School, Ms. Pollock reviewed over 18,000 theses and dissertations to ensure that they met the high standards set by the graduate faculty at NC State.
Nominees must have
received their graduate degrees in the Summer or Fall term of the previous
calendar year, in the Spring semester of the current calendar year, or
anticipate completion of the degree in the Summer term of the current calendar
year.
Students may not
apply directly for these awards. Instead, nominations from each college are
submitted to the Graduate School from the college Associate Deans with
responsibility for graduate programs. The call for nominations will announce the
maximum number of thesis and dissertation award nominations each college may
submit.
Nominations must
include the following:
Cover page (template available
here)
Summary of thesis
or dissertation: In addition to indicating the methodology and substance of
the thesis or dissertation, each summary must explain why the research is of
vital interest to the citizens of North Carolina. If there are certain
regions of North Carolina (e.g., various municipalities, counties, regions)
that benefit most from the research, this fact should be highlighted. The
summary must be written in language that any individual who is not in
the same academic area of the nominee would understand. (Information
regarding the format of the summary will be included with the call for
nominations.)
Letters of recommendation: The nomination must
contain three letters of support, one of which must be from the nominee’s
thesis or dissertation committee chair.
The theses and
dissertations themselves may be reviewed on-line. Therefore, it is not necessary
to submit a hard copy of the thesis or dissertation itself.
Both the
methodological and substantive quality of theses and dissertations will be
evaluated. The thesis or dissertation summary must be written in terms
that any individual who is not in the same academic area as the nominee
can understand. The extent to which the work addresses issues that are of vital
interest to the citizens of North Carolina also will be evaluated (e.g., impact
on quality of life, economic impact, etc.). Summaries of nominated theses and
dissertations will be considered for inclusion in a brochure designed to inform
North Carolina decision-makers of the critical importance of graduate education
to the citizens of the state.
The colleges will be asked to submit nominations to the Graduate School. The Graduate School will announce the exact deadline in the call for nominations.
For further information, please contact Dr. David Shafer at 919-515-7052 or via e-mail at David_Shafer@ncsu.edu.