07. 26. 2022

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the 2022 Best Dissertation Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 Best Dissertation Award! A student from each of four groups – arts and humanities, biological and life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and social sciences and education – was chosen by faculty from the broad disciplinary area. Selections were based on the originality and importance of the research, as well as the potential for the student to make an unusually significant contribution to their field.

    ARTS & HUMANITIES 

    Adey Almohsen, History

    • Advisor: Daniel Schroeter
    • Dissertation: On Modernism’s Edge: An Intellectual History of Palestinians After 1948
    • Current Position: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor, History Department, Grinnell College

    BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL SCIENCES

    Erik Faber, Medicinal Chemistry

    • Advisor: Gunda Georg
    • Dissertation: Development of Allosteric Inhibitors against Cyclin-dependent Kinase 2 (CDK2)
    • Current Position: MD/PhD Student, University of Minnesota - Medical School

    PHYSICAL SCIENCES & ENGINEERING

    Xiaowei Jia, Cognitive Science

    • Advisor: Vipin Kumar
    • Dissertation: Integrating Physics into Machine Learning for Monitoring Scientific Systems
    • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh

    SOCIAL SCIENCES & EDUCATION

    Kristin Crouse, Anthropology

    • Advisor: Michael Wilson, Co-Advisor: Clarence Lehman
    • Dissertation: B3GET: A new computational approach for understanding and exploring ecology, evolution, and behavior
    • Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota

    HONORABLE MENTIONS

    • Huarui Cui, Chemistry, Advisor: Will Pomerantz
    • Alexander Everhart, Health Services Research, Policy, & Administration, Advisor: Pinar Karaca Mandic
    • McKinley Green, Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication, Advisor: Patrick Bruch
    • Devika Narayan, Sociology, Advisor: Michael Goldman, Co-Advisor: Rachel Schurman