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 2023

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 numbers 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.

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 Dean, 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 Dean, Dr. Maribeth Watwood, if you are interested in nominating one of your students for these awards.