Graduate School Honors High-Quality Theses and Dissertations

Texas Tech University’s Graduate School recently announced the 2014 award winners who achieved high quality work in their theses and dissertations.

The first place dissertation award winners will be nominated to the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) as part of its annual CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award competition. The competition recognizes an outstanding dissertation that represents original work and makes unusually significant contributions to the discipline being considered for that year.

“We are pleased to be able to honor our graduate students and the top-quality research they are conducting,” said Mark Sheridan, vice provost for graduate affairs and dean of the Graduate School. “Graduate students and research are a critical component of Texas Tech’s drive to be a top-tier research university.”

In even numbered years, the Graduate School recognizes work in social sciences, mathematics, physical sciences and engineering.  Odd years will recognize biological life sciences, humanities and fine arts.

Students are nominated by their faculty members for this cash award. Helen Jones Foundation funding contributed to make these awards possible.

This year’s winners are:

Math, Physical Sciences and Engineering

• First place Master’s Thesis
  Jason Post in the Department of Geosciences
  “Environmental Inequality in Lubbock Texas”
  Nominated by Perry Carter
• First place Doctoral Dissertation
  Yunzhe Ma in the Department of Chemical Engineering
  “Microneedles for Drug Delivery into Oral Cavity”
  Nominated by Harvinder Gill
• Second place Doctoral Dissertation
  Jared Gragg in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
  “Investigating the onset of slip in gait by employing probabilistic theory and optimization-based motion prediction”
  Nominated by Jingzhou Yang

Social Sciences

• First place Master’s Thesis
  Megan Ohlmann in the Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership
  “A Quantitative Analysis of Factors Affecting Undergraduate Business Students' Choice of Major: Testing a Proposed Model of Academic Major Choice Identity Development”
  Nominated by Stephanie Jones
• Second place Master’s Thesis
  Nellie Hill in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications
  “A Social Network Analysis of Texas Alliance for Water Conservation Producers”
  Nominated by David Doerfert
• First place Doctoral Dissertation
  Leah Carruth in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
  “Interactions in Kindergarten Writing Workshop:  Writing Development and Social Development”
  Nominated by Carole Janisch
• Second place Doctoral Dissertation
  Sungwon Chung in the Department of Media and Communication
  “Motivated cognition in video games: the influence of emotional video game content on cognitive processing of billboard advertisements embedded in first-person shooter games”
  Nominated by Todd Chambers