NICADD Thesis Research and Undergraduate Research Awards

NICADD Thesis Awards

Each year, NICADD will award up to two "best graduate thesis research" awards. All NICADD fields will be considered for the awards: physics, engineering and, potentially in the future, computer science or other fields. Nominally, one award will be for Ph.D. research and one for M.S. research, but circumstances may result in two awards at the same level.

  • Award nominations are due on April 15 of each year. Eligible students will have successfully defended their thesis in the prior year from that date.
  • Nominations must include:
    • a brief (<= 1 page) letter directly from the student summarizing their thesis.
    • two reference letters, one from the student's advisor (NICADD member) and one from someone else (not necessarily from their department at NIU) that can talk about the student's research.
  • Each award will be $1000.
  • Nominations will be reviewed by the NICADD directors. In the case of a conflict of interest, the director will find an alternate reviewer from within NICADD, ideally in the same field. Note that being the only submission(s) does not guarantee an award.

 

Undergraduate Research Awards

Each year, NICADD will award up to two "best undergraduate research" awards. All NICADD fields will be considered for the awards: physics, engineering and, potentially in the future, computer science or other fields.

  • Award nominations are due on April 15 of each year. Eligible students will have successfully completed NICADD-related research in a prior year from that date. Nominations should include:
    • a brief (<= 1 page) letter from the student summarizing their work. Research rookies and students taking research course credits would be eligible, but REU and other students not from NIU would not be eligible.
    • one reference letter from a mentor (NICADD member) that can talk about their research
  • Each award will be $500
  • Nominations will be reviewed by the NICADD directors. In the case of a conflict of interest, the director will find an alternate reviewer from within NICADD, ideally in the same field. Note that being the only submission(s) doesn't guarantee an award.

 

Nominations for NICADD research awards and supporting documents should be sent directly to the NICADD office via email:  information@nicadd.niu.edu.  

 

Past Winners:

 

2023:

  • Thesis Award winner: Brianna Dwyer
    • Measuring the Diphoton Production from Higgs Boson Decays and in Association with Heavy Flavor Jets

2022:

  • Thesis Award winner: Prudhvi N. Bhattiprolu
    • Signal-Background Analysis for New Physics at Particle Colliders and the Criteria for its Discovery
  • Undergraduate Research Award winner: August Lee
    • A Study of Vector Boson Fusion of di-Higgs to Two Bottom Quarks and Two Photons