Graduate Awards

Teaching Excellence Award

Award Submission Deadlines

TermNo later than
Fall SemesterNo later than October 15
Spring SemesterNo later than March 15

All nominations must be submitted via email to the Department Director of Graduate Education and Graduate Student Services Specialist. Submissions by students are not allowed

Purpose of Program

The purpose of these awards is to recognize and encourage outstanding teaching achievement by graduate students. The intent is to recognize up to 10% of the graduate students involved in teaching each year. Departments can choose to be more restrictive in the number of awards they give out, according to their criteria and policies.

Description of Awards

Each Teaching Excellence Award consists of:

  • a letter of commendation from the ISU President,
  • a certificate of achievement signed by the ISU President and the Graduate Dean,
  • an honor cord to be worn at commencement, and
  • an official notation on the student’s transcript.

Many Teaching Excellence Award winners will not be graduating at the time they receive their award. Recipients should keep their honor cord and wear the cord at the time of their graduation. A citation will be listed by their name in the ISU Commencement Program. Funding is not available through this program to offer cash prizes. However, departments are encouraged to use their own funds for this purpose whenever possible. Any cash prize should be handled directly by the department.

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Research Excellence Award

Award Submission Deadlines

TermNo later than
Fall SemesterNo later than October 15
Spring SemesterNo later than March 15

All nominations must be submitted via email to the Department Director of Graduate Education and Graduate Student Services Specialist. Submissions by students are not allowed

Purpose of Program

The purpose of these awards is to recognize graduate students for outstanding research accomplishments as documented in their theses and dissertations. These students are also expected to be academically superior and able not only to do research, but also to develop a well written product. The intent of this program is to recognize "the best of the best" graduating students who have submitted theses and dissertations.

Description of Awards

Each Research Excellence Award consists of:

  • a letter of commendation from the ISU President,
  • a certificate of achievement signed by the ISU President and the Graduate College Dean,
  • an honor cord to be worn at commencement, and
  • an official notation on the student’s transcript.

If Research Excellence Award winners will not be graduating at the time these awards are given, they should keep their honor cord and wear it when they graduate. A citation will be listed by their name in the ISU Commencement Program. Funding is not available through this program to offer cash prizes. However, departments are encouraged to use their own funds for this purpose whenever possible. Any cash prize should be handled directly by the department.

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Publication Award

Award Submission Deadlines

Authors of papers are eligible to apply once their receive their final acceptance. To apply, email the Department Chair, Graduate Student Services Specialists, and Cost Center Manager. All co-authors should also be included in the carbon copy (CC). Attach the following to the email:

  1. A PDF of your acceptance notification email, showing the authors and conference title.
  2. An abstract of the accepted paper.

Purpose of Program

If a Computer Science graduate student is an author of a paper accepted at an approved conference, at and least one co-author is a Computer Science graduate faculty, then the department will offer a Publication Award to help defray conference registration and other costs.

Description of Awards

One $500 award per paper (not per author) will be given out. This award, in the form of reimbursable expenses, supports travel to present the research findings. All authors will receive a signed certificate from the department.

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Robert Stewart Early Research Recognition Award

Award Submission Deadlines

Purpose of Program

Description of Awards

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John Vincent Atanasoff Graduate Award

Award Submission Deadlines

Purpose of Program

Description of Awards

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Arthur A. Collins Education Fund

Award Submission Deadlines

Purpose of Program

Description of Awards

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