NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Awards

About the Awards

Each spring, NYU schools are invited to submit nominations for University-wide outstanding dissertation awards for the academic year. Each school may submit up to three total nominations across any combination of award categories.

Award Categories

Arts & Humanities

for example, studies related to the fine arts; humanist disciplines; cultural studies; or theater, performance, and cinema studies

Public Health & Allied Health

for example, studies related to population and community health or to delivery of health-related services such as rehabilitation services, occupational therapy, dietetics etc.; as well as studies pertaining to the identification, evaluation, and prevention of diseases

Science & Technology

for example, studies relating to basic scientific discovery, whose goals are to expand or explore the knowledge in a particular field, including engineering, as well as studies applying existing scientific or engineering knowledge to practical goals, such as new technologies or inventions

Social Sciences

for example, studies in traditional social science disciplines, as well as projects using one or more of the social sciences to study topics in areas such as policy, management, finance, environmental studies, or social work.

Criteria for Award Selection

The review will be based on the following criteria (as evidenced in the Dissertation Summary, Personal Statement, and Support from Thesis Advisor):

• impact (on relevant academic field/discipline), including:
  • originality of contribution
  • originality/innovativeness of research design/research methodology
• societal impact 
• clarity of the context, research questions, and findings
• rigor or quality of analysis and interpretation

Submission Materials

For each nomination, Schools should submit a single PDF to doctoral.affairs@nyu.edu including the following materials:

• Cover page
  • Download and complete the required template (first page of this Google Doc), including signature (or authorized e-signature) of School Leader (e.g., Dean, Associate Dean, etc.) confirming School approval of the nomination.
  • Include a link or pdf to the dissertation, or justification for non-inclusion.

• Dissertation summary  (maximum: 1000 words). The summary should be a maximum 1000 words, double-spaced, 12-point font.  Please explain the background, the purpose and the outcome of your dissertation. This should be written for a non-specialist audience. Someone who is not from your discipline or field should be able to understand your summary.

• Personal statement by the nominee (maximum: 500 words). Include a statement from the author of the dissertation providing background and context to help understand the importance of the work to the field. If the study involved collaboration, the nominee would explain their contribution to the project. They may also discuss how the dissertation has shaped their scholarly views, narrate how they came to this project, etc 

• Support from Thesis Advisor (maximum: 1,200 words). The advisor must use the Support from Thesis Advisor template that explicitly addresses how well the dissertation exemplifies the award criteria:
  • impact (on relevant academic field/discipline), including:
    • originality of contribution
    • originality/innovativeness of research design/research methodology
  • societal impact 
  • clarity of the context, research questions, and findings
  • rigor or quality of analysis and interpretation

The advisor may choose to add general comments about the nominee, including overall scholarly credentials.

Late nominations will not be accepted.