Carmen Halabi (genetics), Matthew Miller (English), Alok Shah (molecular and cellular biology) and Elizabeth Sutton (art history) were honored with the Graduate College Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award. Susan McKernan (dental public health) won the L.B. Sims Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award.

Halabi and Shah each won the Graduate Deans' Distinguished Dissertation Award in biological and life sciences.

Halabi, who earned an M.D. and Ph.D. in genetics in 2009, was recognized for her dissertation, "Interference with Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor Gamma Function in Smooth Muscle Causes Vascular Dysfunction and Hypertension." She is currently an intern in the pediatric residency program at the St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Shah, who earned his doctorate in molecular and cellular biology in 2009, won for his dissertation, "Structural Maintenance and Chemosensory Function of Human Airway Motile Cilia." Shah is a postdoctoral associate in mammalian cell biology and development at Rockefeller University in New York.

Miller and Sutton both received the Graduate Deans' Distinguished Dissertation Award in humanities and fine arts.

Miller, who earned his doctorate in English in 2007, was honored for his dissertation, "Collage of Myself: The Making of Leaves of Grass." He is an assistant professor of English at the Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University in New York.

Sutton, who earned her doctorate in art history in 2009, won for her dissertation, "Economics, Ethnography, and Empire: The Illustrated Travel Series of Cornelis Claesz, 1598-1603." Sutton currently is a visiting professor of art history at the University of Northern Iowa.

McKernan, who received her master's degree in dental public health in 2009 and is a postdoctoral research fellow in the UI College of Dentistry, won the L.B. Sims Award for her thesis, "Modeling State Dentist Workforce Using County-Level Population Data."