The Graduate Student Recognition Celebration is an annual event at which exceptional graduate and professional students are recognized for their significant contributions to research, community service, as well as teaching and leadership. The event begins with a brief ceremony during which the Dean presents student, faculty, and staff award recipients with a plaque for their achievements. Following the ceremony, attendees are invited to enjoy hors d'oeuvres while viewing research posters from outstanding graduate student scholars.
Impact Awards
Graduate students make an impact through their research, which benefits our state and beyond. Each year, The Graduate School honors graduate students in programs throughout our University for their powerful discoveries that contribute to a better future for people and communities in North Carolina..
Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Awards
The dissertation is the highest level of graduate student scholarship. Recipients of the Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award are making outstanding contributions — read about their research in their own words.
Julia Brom, chemistry
2025 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Biological and Life Sciences
Dry Proteins and their Protection Assessed by LOVE NMR, Calorimetry, and Catalytic Activity
Dissertation Adviser: Gary Joseph Pielak
“The availability of lifesaving protein drugs and powerful industrial enzymes is hindered by their instability in solution, necessitating costly refrigeration. Dehydration is an alternative as dry proteins may be stored at room temperature, but most proteins only survive drying when appropriately formulated with protective molecules. Nevertheless, the protective mechanisms are poorly understood, making dry protein formulation empirical and often unsuccessful. My dissertation illuminates these mechanisms by investigating and connecting residue-level dry protein structure and functional protection after rehydration. These studies uncovered new phenomena surrounding protein protection in the dry state and weighed in on existing hypotheses. My research provides a foundation for better formulation of dry protein products.”
Adams Sibley, health behavior
2025 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Social Sciences
Determining the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Novel Stigma Resistance Text Message Intervention for People who Use Drugs
Dissertation Adviser: Vivian Fei-ling Go
“People who use drugs face stigma from all corners of society yet have few resources to cope with prejudice and discrimination. Many internalize and accept these negative beliefs about themselves. In this dissertation, I first offer two new frameworks for understanding substance use stigma based on surveys and interviews with people who use drugs in rural Appalachia. Then, I describe my process of creating an automated text message program designed to help people cope with and resist substance use stigma using theory-based supportive messages. Finally, I discuss the outcomes of a 4-week trial of the program I conducted. I find that the program is highly acceptable to participants and feasible to conduct, with promising evidence of reducing self-stigma and improving self-esteem. Given its pertinence to desirable outcomes like help-seeking and undesirable outcomes like overdose, I conclude that stigma deserves greater attention in our efforts to stem the tide of the overdose epidemic.”
Pa Chia Thao, physics and astronomy
2025 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Windows Into Planetary Evolution: the Detection and Characterization of Young Planets
Dissertation Adviser: Andrew W. Mann
“A fundamental challenge in exoplanet research is unraveling how planets form and evolve, and become the diverse worlds we see across the galaxy. By analyzing the light that passes through their atmospheres as they orbit their host stars, we can identify the elements and molecules present in these planets. While this technique has transformed our understanding of planetary atmospheres, most studies have focused on older systems, leaving early formation stages largely unexplored. To bridge this gap, my dissertation investigates three newly formed exoplanets — each less than a billion years old — using ground- and space-based telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. This research not only sheds light on how planetary composition changes over time but also helps us better understand how planets, including those in our solar system, come into existence. ”
Jennifer Wu, art history
2025 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Humanities and Fine Arts
The Metapictorial Portrait in Early Modern Britain, 1520-1620
Dissertation Adviser: Tatiana C. String
“My dissertation investigates portrait paintings produced during a transformative historical period in which artistic techniques and tenets from the European continent converged with the pictorial traditions of the geographically peripheral regions of England and Scotland. By examining a variety of Tudor and Jacobean paintings, I argue that native and émigré painters forged eclectic and resourceful visual strategies that engaged with complex issues of artistic representation. During this time, portraiture emerged as the dominant genre of painting in early modern Britain.”
Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service by a Graduate or Professional Student
This award, one of the Chancellor's Awards at Carolina, recognizes graduate and professional students who demonstrate exemplary character, scholarship, leadership and service by giving above and beyond to the greater University community.
Three Minute Thesis (3MT)
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is an academic competition that assists current graduate students with fostering effective presentation and communication skills. Participants have just three minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research project to a non-specialist audience.
Carolina Center for Public Service Community Engagement Fellows
Learn more about the 2024 Carolina Center for Public Service Community Engagement Fellows and their projects.
Tanner Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Graduate Teaching Assistants
In 1990, the University expanded the purview of the Tanner Awards to recognize excellence in the teaching of undergraduates by graduate teaching assistants. Learn more about the Tanner Awards.
- Clare Byers, history
- Andrew Lyons, mathematics
- Dianne Mann, public health
- David Stilwell, physics
- Joseph Tanner Bourne, Romance studies
Excellence in Graduate Student Services Award
Student services managers work hard to support graduate students' academic success and professional development. The Graduate and Professional Student Government and The Graduate School are pleased to present an award in recognition of this important work.
Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student and Academic Program Support
Directors of graduate studies provide exemplary leadership. The Graduate School is pleased to honor the many ways they provide outstanding support for graduate programs and their students.
Dean’s Award for Significant Contributions to Graduate Education
This award recognizes an individual who has gone above and beyond what is normally required to make significant contributions that impact graduate education.
Prestigious External Fellowship Winners
External fellowships, which are highly competitive awards from the federal government and other organizations, add to Carolina's reputation as one of the world's leading public research universities.