The Graduate School is pleased to announce the 2026 Distinguished Dissertation Award Winners
Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Distiniguished Dissertation Award! Selections are 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. These recipients will also be nominated by the University of Minnesota to the national 2026 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award competition.
Xianyu Chen, Computer Science
Advisor: Dr. Qi Zhao
Best Dissertation Category: Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering
Dissertation Title: Building Human-Like Machine Intelligence: Advancing Attention by Modeling, Alignment, and Explainability
Current Position: AI Research Scientist at Fasikl
Rita Tang, Mass Communication
Advisor: Dr. Emily Vraga
Best Dissertation Category: Social Sciences
Dissertation Title: Defensiveness and Acceptance When Being Corrected: Using AI to Promote Receptivity to Quality Information on Social Media
Current Position: Doctoral Candidate
Honorable Mentions for the University’s Distinguished Dissertation Award include:
Vivek Khatana, Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Murti Salalpaka
Best Dissertation Category: Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering
Dissertation Title: Balancing Information Mixing and Optimality: A Framework for Robust and Efficient Distributed Decision-Making
Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Autonomous Vehicles in Air Transportation Engineering (AVIATE) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno
Seohyeon Choi, Educational Psychology
Advisor: Dr. Kristen McMaster
Best Dissertation Category: Social Sciences
Dissertation Title: Toward the Fair and Valid Use of Curriculum-Based Measurement for Students with Intensive Writing Needs and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds
Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Minnesota
Jillian LaBranche, Sociology
Advisor: Drs. Joachim Savelsberg and Alejandro Baer
Best Dissertation Category: Social Sciences
Dissertation Title: Violence in the Classroom: Negotiating Historical Narratives in Rwanda and Sierra Leone
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University