Awards & Honors

 
Purpose

The Tom L. Popejoy Dissertation Prize was established as a permanent memorial to the late Tom L. Popejoy, President of the University of New Mexico from 1948 to 1968. The award recognizes and encourages the highest level of academic excellence. Competition for the prize is structured on a three-year rotation, so that in one year, the departments of Art and Art History (including MFA) and Humanities are asked to submit their best dissertations; in the next, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics & Statistics; and last, Social Sciences and Education (including EdD). See below for a 3-year rotation schedule.

Nomination Procedures: 

The departments eligible for submitting nominations for Spring 2025 are in the third category:

  • Anthropology
  • Communications
  • Counseling
  • Economics
  • Educational Leadership
  • Educational Linguistics
  • Educational Psychology
  • Family Studies
  • Health, Exercise & Sports Science
  • Language, Literacy & Sociocultural Studies
  • Latin American Studies
  • Linguistics
  • Organization, Information & Learning Sciences
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Special Education
  • Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education
Each of these departments or programs may nominate one dissertation from a student that graduated any time between the Spring 2022 semester through the end of the Fall 2024 semester.  A jury of two tenured faculty members and the Dean of Graduate Studies will select the award-winning dissertation. The original dissertation readers’ reports will be made available to the jury, whose deliberations will be confidential. If no dissertation is found worthy of the prize in a given year, no award will be made and the rotation will continue the following year.

Nominating Units must submit the following information to the Office of Graduate Studies by the published or extended deadline:

  • Submit nominations via Infoready
  • A written overview of the dissertation and why it was chosen as the departmental nomination
  • A copy of the dissertation (Graduate Studies will obtain from UNM Digital Repository)
  • When possible, include the nominee’s current position and what publications/grants arose from the dissertation.

Stipend

A $2,500 stipend will be awarded at Fall commencement. The recipient should be present at Fall commencement to accept the award. 

Nomination Deadline

March 6, 2026

For additional information please email grad@unm.edu
  


Category

Period eligible for competitionNomination Deadline

   
   Category 1: 

  • Art & Art History (including MFA)
  • American Studies
  • Chicana/o Studies
  • English
  • Foreign Languages & Literature
  • History
  • Native American Studies
  • Philosophy
  • Spanish & Portuguese
Spring 2023 - Fall 2025TBD

   
   Category 2:

  • Biology
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Chemical & Biological Engineering
  • Chemical & Nuclear Engineering
  • Chemistry & Chemical Biology
  • Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical & Computer Engineering
  • Earth & Planetary Sciences
  • Health Equity Sciences
  • Math & Statistics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Nano Science & Microsystems Engineering
  • Nuclear Engineering
  • Nursing
  • Optical Science & Engineering
  • Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Physics & Astronomy
  • Psychology
Spring 2024 - Fall 2026TBD

   
   Category 3:

  • Anthropology
  • Communications
  • Counseling
  • Economics
  • Educational Leadership
  • Educational Linguistics
  • Educational Psychology
  • Family Studies
  • Health, Exercise & Sports Science
  • Language, Literacy & Sociocultural Studies
  • Latin American Studies
  • Linguistics
  • Organization, Information & Learning Sciences
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Special Education
  • Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education
Spring 2022 - Fall 2024March 1, 2025

 

For additional information email grad@unm.edu

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