Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

The Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award is given in recognition of the development of professional excellence by persons writing doctoral dissertations in any field consistent with the AAEA vision statement. A maximum of three awards are given each year, and a $1000 cash prize accompanies each award.


Nomination Guidelines:
Nominations are due on February 5, 2026, by 11:59 pm CST.
-The nominator must be a 2026 AAEA member.
-One nomination may be submitted for every 12 doctoral dissertations of a department that were presented to a graduate school faculty in the calendar year preceding the year of recognition. Selection will be made from documentation approved in final form by the student's advisory committee. Departments should limit nomination consideration to dissertations in fields consistent with the vision statement.
-A published dissertation may be entered for the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award as well as other AAEA Annual Awards but is only eligible to win one award that year.
-To nominate, fill out the online Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award Nomination Form linked below. The form will ask you to upload one PDF file containing all the Award Nomination Materials in the order listed below.

Award Nomination Materials:
-Nomination Letter
-Maximum of three single spaced pages
-Concise statement summarizing the reasons why the nominee is worthy of the award.
-Copy of the dissertation

Electronic format is preferred.
If materials must be submitted in hard copy form, nine copies of the publication should be sent to the AAEA Business Office at 555 E. Wells Street, Suite 1100, Milwaukee, WI 53202.