UW Academic Affairs, Graduate Council Select 2022 Graduate Award Recipients

The University of Wyoming’s Office of Academic Affairs and the Graduate Council have selected the 2022 winners of graduate student and mentor awards for outstanding teaching and research.

The Distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentor Award recognizes outstanding faculty commitment to graduate student mentoring. The John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Assistant Teaching Awards go to graduate teaching assistants to honor their excellence in teaching. The Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award recognizes a graduate student for an exemplary master’s thesis. The Outstanding Dissertation Award is granted to a graduate student for an exemplary doctoral dissertation. Each award carries a stipend.

This year, two additional awards were presented: the Early Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award and the Mid-Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. Both awards are presented to faculty members for their commitment to mentoring graduate students. The Early Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award is presented to a faculty member who has less than six years of academic career at UW. The Mid-Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award is given to a faculty member who has six to 10 years of academic career at the university.

The faculty award winners are:

-- Distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentor Award: Ray Fertig, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

-- Early-Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award: Pejman Tahmasebi, an associate professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering.

-- Mid-Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Awards: Boyi Dai, an associate professor in the Division of Kinesiology and Health; and Kam Ng, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management.

The graduate student award winners, listed by award, hometown and department, are:

John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Assistant Teaching Awards: 

Castle Rock, Colo. -- Solana Quistorff, Department of English.

Monticello, Fla. -- Claudia Richbourg, Program in Ecology (Department of Botany).

Oakdale, Calif. -- Chase Mahan, Department of Anthropology.

Queens, N.Y. -- Samuel Choi, Department of Psychology.

Westerly, R.I. -- Melanie Torres, Program in Ecology (Department of Ecosystem Science and Management)

Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award: 

Wall, N.J. -- Samantha Nobes, Department of Plant Sciences, “Specialty cut flower production and pollinator visitation in protected environments.” 

Outstanding Dissertation Award: 

Zhangjiakou, Hebei, China -- Shaochen Huang, Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. Program, Division of Kinesiology and Health, “The roles of visual and kinesthetic information in learning and control of bimanual coordination.”

For more details about the award recipients, click here.