Awards for NAU Graduate Students

NAU Master’s and Doctoral students can be nominated for a number of awards including fellowships, recruiting travel funding, graduate teaching assistantships and more. Contact us to find resources to help answer your questions about available awards, deadlines, and requirements.

Outstanding Graduate Assistant Awards

Nominations begin Spring 2024

Graduate assistants and coordinators have a valuable impact on the entire NAU community. The Outstanding Graduate Assistant and coordinator awards acknowledge superb achievement at NAU. These awards help us to express our enormous appreciation for those who have gone above and beyond in their graduate assistant and coordinator roles.

Presidential Fellowship Program

For highly qualified incoming Ph.D. students, Northern Arizona University began the Presidential Fellowship Program (PFP) in 2015, offering approximately $23,000 per academic year. The program is designed to recruit outstanding doctoral students to NAU and increase the number of PhD students involved in research and instructional activities. Students cannot apply directly for these fellowships. Nominations are made and submitted by Ph.D. graduate coordinators or department chairs. The Graduate College encourages faculty members to nominate outstanding students for the fellowship as early in the academic year as possible.

Detailed information and the nomination process may be found on the Presidential Fellowship Program website.

ARCS Foundation Award

The ARCS® Foundation Phoenix Chapter advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to academically outstanding doctoral students studying to complete degrees in science, engineering, and medical research. At NAU these awards are provided to doctoral students nominated from three units; Biological Sciences, Forestry, and the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability. Read more about the ARCS Foundation: National organization and Phoenix chapter.

• Neil deGrasse Tyson, scientist and host of “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” may be the best-known scholar alumnus of the ARCS award.
• 9 out of 10 ARCS Scholars work in their chosen fields after graduation.
• ARCS Foundation members are volunteers. One hundred percent of contributions they receive directly fund scholars.
• ARCS Foundation has provided nearly $87 million in funding to more than 14,700 scholars since their founding in 1958.

Award Details

• $8,500/academic year ($4,250 in Fall and $4,250 in Spring)

Terms of Award

• Recipient must be a U.S. citizen enrolled full-time in an on-campus immersion doctoral program from an approved degree programs list
• Recipient must maintain a 3.5+ GPA
• Recipient must be enrolled in 6 or more credits during the funding period
  Learn more about the NAU recipients of this prestigious award. Please contact Deborah Mariage at the Graduate College if you are interested in nominating one of your students for these awards.

Learn more about the NAU recipients of this prestigious award. Please contact Deborah Mariage at the Graduate College if you are interested in nominating one of your students for these awards.

Thesis and dissertation awards

Council of Graduate Schools/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

First presented in 1981 and sponsored jointly by CGS and ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (a Division of ProQuest Information and Learning), these awards are made each year to individuals who, in the opinion of the award committee, have completed dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline.

Two awards are given annually in two different broad areas, chosen by CGS. These areas include:

• Social sciences
• Mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering
• Biological sciences
• Humanities and fine arts

Individuals must be nominated for these awards by a member institution. The annual fields of competition can be found by visiting the CGS website.

Please contact the Graduate College Vice Provost, Dr. Maribeth Watwood, if you are interested in nominating one of your students for the award.

Western Association of Graduate Schools Outstanding Thesis Award

Each year, the Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) and ProQuest seek nominees for two award categories: The WAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award and the WAGS/ProQuest Innovation in Technology Award. The approximate deadline for thesis/dissertation submittal is mid-August. The winners are announced in March at the WAGS annual meeting.

Details on the awards and nomination process can be found on the WAGS website. Please contact the Graduate College Vice Provost, Dr. Maribeth Watwood, if you are interested in nominating one of your students for these awards.