Based on their excellence in doctoral research, four University of Iowa graduate students have been recognized for having the best dissertation in their fields at the UI.
The Graduate College honors John Eicher and Viral Shah with the D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize and Allison Cox and Matt Sutterer with the Rex Montgomery Dissertation Prize.
Eicher, who earned his Ph.D. in history in 2015, won the Spriestersbach Prize in the Humanities and Fine Arts for his dissertation, “Now Too Much for Us: German and Mennonite Transnationalisms, 1874-1944.” Shah, who received his Ph.D. in molecular physiology and biophysics in 2017, won the Spriestersbach Prize in the Biological and Life Sciences for his dissertation, “Mechanisms of Acid and Base Secretion: Implications for Airway Host Defense in Cystic Fibrosis.”
Cox, who earned her Ph.D. in genetics in 2016, and Sutterer, who earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2015, both received the Montgomery Prize, which is awarded annually in the biomedical and health sciences disciplines. Cox titled her dissertation, “Whole Exome Analysis of Individuals and Families with Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis (CRMO).” Sutterer’s dissertation is titled, “Plasticity and Reorganization of Brain Networks Subserving Emotion and Decision-Making.”
The scholars were nominated by members of their dissertation committees and will be honored during a ceremony at the James F. Jakobsen Graduate Conference in late March 2018.
Learn about the outstanding research conducted by these scholars: