The University of Texas at Dallas recognized a number of faculty, staff and students for their leadership, dedication and contributions to educational excellence this past academic year.

2023 Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Joseph Friedman, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering
Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
2023 Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring
Dr. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki, professor of physics
School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
2023 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring
Dr. Rashaunda Henderson, Eugene McDermott Professor of electrical engineering
Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
2023 Advisor of the Year
Courtney Milavec
Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology
2023 Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award
Paulina Hruskoci BS’23, geospatial information sciences
School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
2023 Center for Teaching and Learning Outstanding Service Award
Victoria McCrady, assistant professor of instruction in organizations, strategy and international management
Naveen Jindal School of Management

Outstanding Graduate Student Awards

Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology
Master’s: *Danika Hollis BA’20, MA’23
PhD: Brecken Hunter Wellborn

School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Master’s: Sarah Mcdowell MS’23
PhD: *Sarah Laane

School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
Master’s: Marzia Cava
PhD: Connor Donegan PhD’23

Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
Master’s: Priyanshkumar Patel MS’23
PhD: Taek Kang

Naveen Jindal School of Management
Master’s: Garima Gupta
PhD: Nan Guo

School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Master’s: None awarded
PhD: Alejandra Durand-Silva PhD’22

*Office of Graduate Education’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award recipients

Best Dissertation Awards

Tyler Sherron PhD’22
Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology
True Self-Love in Eighteenth-Century New England: A Case Study of Roger Sherman and the Edwardsean Theological Tradition
Research mentor: Dr. Daniel Wickberg

David Hoagey PhD’22
School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Structural Heterogeneity in Neuronal Aging: Insights from Micro and Macro Structural Neuroimaging
Research mentor: Dr. Kristen Kennedy

Jordan Riddell PhD’22
School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
Citation Release, Decarceration, and Crime in Washington, D.C.
Research mentor: Dr. John Worrall

Kinjal Basu MS’18, PhD’22
Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
Natural Language Understanding and Commonsense Reasoning Using Answer Set Programming and Its Applications
Research mentor: Dr. Gopal Gupta

Brad Nathan PhD’22
Naveen Jindal School of Management
Accounting Information Provision and Competitive Bidding: The Case of Procurement Contract Negotiations
Research mentor: Dr. Ashiq Ali

Fabian Castro BS’18, PhD’22
School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Engineered Proteinaceous Materials and Their Applications in Vaccine Development
Research mentor: Dr. Jeremiah Gassensmith

David Daniel Thesis Awards

Bhanu Teja Vankayalapati PhD’22
Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
Methods for On-Board Condition Monitoring of SiC MOSFET Based Converters
Research mentor: Dr. Bilal Akin

Patrick Cheung MS’22, PhD’22
School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Inversion Asymmetry, Flavortronics, and Nonlinear Optics in Two-Dimensional Materials
Research mentor: Dr. Fan Zhang