Deadline approaching for two graduate awards
The internal deadline for the COE Graduate Student Award for Exceptional Research Promise and the Litvin Honor Award is April 2. Submissions for both awards must be sent to Carmen Lilley, the director of graduate studies, at clilley@uic.edu.The COE Graduate Student Award for Exceptional Research Promise is limited to two submission from the MIE department, and there will be an internal review and selection by the graduate committee.
The criteria governing this award are the following:
- To be eligible for this award, a PhD student must have passed their preliminary examination by March 15 of that year; and recipients of the award will not be eligible for nomination again during the subsequent years.
- The awards will be based on excellence in research accomplishments as a PhD student, as measured by scholarly activities: impactful research through refereed publications, and other research-focused activities.
- The director of graduate studies may nominate at least one and up to 2% of their PhD students from their unit. A nomination package should contain the following:
- Short Nomination letter from the director of graduate studies, with endorsement by the Departmental Graduate Committee;
- Advisor’s recommendation of candidate for the award (two pages or less), explaining the impact of research;
- Curriculum vitae of the nominee with publication details.
Please note that other reference letters should not be included.
The email to the director of graduate studies must include the following information:
- Your advisor
- The date you passed your preliminary exam if it was in spring 2021 or the term if it was earlier than this semester.
- Your major (IE or ME PhD)
The Litvin Honor Award was founded in 2010 with the support of a gift by the late Distinguished Professor Faydor Litvin to honor excellent graduate students in mechanical engineering. All PhD candidates who have not received a Litvin Honor Award are eligible, which is awarded on equal basis of scholarly achievement and service to the department and graduate student life. The award carries a $1,500 stipend on top of any other financial support received by the student.
To be considered for the award, students must submit the application information listed below to the director of graduate studies via email:
- Your curriculum vitae with a list of courses taken and your GPA.
- A statement describing your qualifications for the award that includes your volunteer service to students in our department or community organizations. Also highlight your research accomplishments. The two criteria are given equal weight in the selection process, and both are necessary for a successful application. The statement does not need to be long – the committee will appreciate succinct explanations – but be sure that you explicitly point out the significance of your accomplishments in a way that professors not intimately familiar with your work will appreciate.
Preference for the award will be given to students who have more than one year remaining before graduation. In this way, a student who may be eligible to be a Dean’s Scholar would receive the Litvin Award before applying for the Dean’s Scholar award. As stated in the text above, scholarly accomplishment and service to graduate student life are required for a successful application.