Chancellor’s Dissertation Medal

Award Description

The Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA), in coordination with the Division of Graduate Education & Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA), organizes the Chancelor's award to graduate students who have recently completed their thesis work at UC San Diego. Each department is eligible to nominate one student who has completed an outstanding dissertation in the past year. A committee of faculty assembled by the dean of each school will select a winner from each school at UC San Diego. Award winners will have the opportunity to be honored at commencement and an awards luncheon. Winners will also be recognized as a recipient of the medal on the GPSA and GEPA webpages.

This Medal is an excellent opportunity for the university to recognize the work of our most outstanding students as they leave with their PhDs.

Congratulations to the 2024 recipients!

Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science: Tuo Lin (Biostatistics and Bioinformatics)
Jacobs School of Engineering: Bojing (Blair) Jia (Bioinformatics and Systems Biology)
School of Biological Sciences: Amy Prichard (Biology)
School of Physical Sciences: Brian Kha Tran (Mathematics)
School of Social Sciences: Vijay Veerabadran (Cognitive Science)
Scipps Institution of Oceanography: Yuming Jin (Earth Sciences)

Previous Winners

Congratulations to the 2023 recipients!

Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science: Nabamallika Dehingia (Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health)
Jacobs School of Engineering: Yue Qin (Bioinformatics and Systems Biology)
School of Arts and Humanities: Marianna Hovhannisyan (Visual Arts)
School of Biological Sciences: Jinhao "Albert" Xu (Cell and Development Biology)
School of Physical Sciences: Akhil Premkumar (Physics)
School of Social Sciences: Daegyeong "D.G." Kim (Political Science)
Scipps Institution of Oceanography: Ariel Pezner (Oceanography)

Congratulations to the 2022 recipients!

Arts and Humanities: Keir GoGwilt (Music)
Biological Sciences: Daniella McDonald (Biomedical Sciences)
Wertheim School of Public Health:Yuqi Qiu (Biostatistics)
Jacobs School of Engineering: An Zheng (Computer Science and Engineering)
Physical Sciences: Yi Yang (Physcis)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Jia-Rui Shi (Oceanography & Climate Science)
Social Sciences: Lauren Nippoldt (Anthropology)

Congratulations to the 2021 recipients!

Arts and Humanities: Sebastian Speitel (Philosophy)
Biological Sciences: Robert Kim (Neuroscience)
Wertheim School of Public Health: Lara Marquez (TBD)
Jacobs School of Engineering: Zexiang Xu (Computer Science and Engineering)
Physical Sciences: Jesse Peltier (Chemistry)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Benjamin Birner (Geosciences Research Division)
Social Sciences: Richard Gao (Cognitive Science)

Congratulations to the 2020 recipients!

Arts and Humanities: Sky Johnston (History)
Biological Sciences: Jennifer Dumdie (Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences)
Jacobs School of Engineering: Sunmi Shin (Materials Science)
Physical Sciences: James Wampler (Physics)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Travis Courtney (Geosciences Research Division)
Social Sciences: Lauren Olsen (Sociology)