Iowa State University

The Karas Award Guidelines

The Karas Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the Behavioral Sciences

2007 Award Deadlines: Nominations due by March 1, 2008; Send nominations to Felicity Douglas, Graduate College, 1137 Pearson Hall

Winner notified by mid-April

Award presented at the Sigma Xi banquet on the 4th Thursday in April.

Contact person: Felicity Douglas 294-1958 or fdouglas@iastate.edu

The Karas Award has been established to recognize a superior dissertation by a doctoral student in the behavioral sciences (human or animal). The award is given in honor of Dr. George G. Karas, who served as an associate dean in the Graduate College for 29 of his 36 years at Iowa State University.

Nomination: Major professors and faculty make nominations to the Dean of the Graduate College by March 1,submitting them to Felicity Douglas, Graduate College, 1137 Pearson Hall. Each should include a copy of the dissertation, a letter of nomination from the major professor, an endorsement by the director of graduate education for the student’s major, and a professional resume including publications and honors. Eligible dissertations must have been accepted by the Graduate College during calendar year 2007.

Criteria: A committee selected by the Graduate Dean to include several faculty members in related disciplines and one member of the Graduate Student Senate will review the nominations. The nominee’s dissertation should represent original work making an unusually significant contribution to the discipline. Both methodological and substantive quality will be judged. If no nominations are deemed to meet these criteria, no winner for that year will be declared. The winner will be notified by mid-April.

Presentation: The author of the winning dissertation will be invited to the Sigma Xi Spring Banquet in April. The winner will be presented with a check for $500 and a plaque of recognition at that meeting. Because Sigma Xi is interested in the nominees, they have asked that each nomination for this prize include a statement indicating whether the student is a current member of Sigma Xi or if he/she is being nominated for membership. Membership in Sigma Xi is not, however, required of candidates for the Karas Award.

A list of previous winners is available here.

If you have questions, please contact Felicity Douglas at 294-1958 or fdouglas@iastate.edu

The Fountain of the Four Seasons, one of many pieces on campus created by Christian Petersen, has graced the front of the Memorial Union since 1941.