• Graduate Student Award for Distinguished Service (up to 2 awards):
  • One award to honor a student who demonstrates excellence in service to the department, college, university, or community.  The nominee should go above and beyond the scope of their graduate assistantship or fellowship.
     
• Graduate Student Award for Mentoring Excellence (up to 2 awards):
  • One award to honor a student who demonstrates excellence in mentoring. The nominee should be an advanced graduate student who provides exemplary and effective mentoring for undergraduate and/or new graduate students. The nature of the mentoring may include mentees’ personal, professional, and/or academic success.
     
• Graduate Student Award for Teaching Excellence (up to 3 awards):
  • Three awards to recognize excellence in teaching by a graduate student in any instructional capacity, including instructor of record, recitation, or lab. Nominees must have served as a GTA for at least two semesters within the last two years (GTAs currently teaching in their second semester are eligible).
     

• Nominations can be submitted from faculty, staff, or graduate students. Self-nominations are also invited but should be accompanied by at least one letter of support, which can be included in the nomination packet or emailed directly to Assistant Dean Brian Orefice at orefice.1@osu.edu if the recommender prefers.
• A resume or CV is required.
• A nomination letter is required (1,000 words maximum). Please address the following items as appropriate:
  • Distinguished Service and Mentoring Excellence
    1. Describe the type of service or mentoring, including the time and/or level of commitment.
    2. Provide examples of how the student demonstrates innovation, creativity, or engagement in their activities.
    3. Highlight any involvement or leadership in campus or off-campus organizations, issues, or activities.
  • Teaching Excellence
    1. Describe the teaching experience, including the time and/or level of commitment.
    2. Provide examples of how the student demonstrates innovation, creativity, or engagement in their activities.
    3. Provide SSLEs and/or qualitative student teaching evaluations during two semesters (as supplemental material).
    4. Highlight any involvement in training for improvement and innovation in teaching excellence.
• In addition to the nomination letter, supplemental materials are also encouraged but not required (except for SSLEs for the teaching awards). Supplemental materials may include up to 2 additional letter(s) of support (each 1,000 words max).
• Nominations should be submitted online at the form linked below.

Submit nomination

• Nominations are due Monday, March 9, 2026
• Award recipients will be notified by early April and invited to the College of Arts & Sciences Spring Reception on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, where they will receive their plaque.

The College of Arts and Sciences is seeking nominations for the 2026 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Full details about the award can be found on the CGS website. The fields for this year’s awards are: 1) Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering, and 2) Social Sciences. We will use the following timeline/process to determine the College of Arts & Sciences nominee in each category:

• Monday, June 8 – Nominations due to the College of Arts and Sciences
  • Submit nomination materials electronically to Dr. Brian Orefice (orefice.1@osu.edu), Assistant Dean, Graduate Studies.
  • Nominees must have had their doctoral degree awarded between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026.
  • Nomination packet includes (in one single PDF file):
    • An abstract of the nominee’s dissertation (not to exceed 5 double-spaced pages). Appendices containing other material, such as charts, tables and/or references may be included as additional pages (not to exceed 5 pages). All pages should be numbered, and each should bear the name of the nominee.
    • Three letters of recommendation evaluating the significance and quality of the nominee’s dissertation work. One letter is to be from the nominee’s dissertation supervisor, another from a member of the nominee’s dissertation committee, and the third from a person of the nominee’s choice.
    • The nominee’s curriculum vitae (not to exceed five pages).
• Monday, June 22 – College of Arts and Sciences nominee selected and advanced to the Graduate School
• Thursday, July 2 – Graduate School selects institutional nominee and advances their nomination to CGS

• Students should review the information below sent by The Graduate School for details about the 3MT competition requirements.
  • Questions about the Arts and Sciences 3MT competition can be sent to Dr. Brian Orefice, Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies, at orefice.1@osu.edu.
• Students can submit their video through this Qualtrics application by Tuesday, January 13, 2026.
• The Arts and Sciences 3MT competition will be virtual. A recording of the finalist’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) video clip submission should be upload to OneDrive and they should provide a link in the application.
  • Make sure the shared link is set to be shared so it is viewable by anyone with the link.
  • If students have questions about uploading their video or need technical assistance, they should contact the IT Service Desk at: Phone: 614-688-4357 (HELP), Email: servicedesk@osu.edu.
• Submissions will be reviewed by a selection committee and the College of Arts and Sciences nominee will be advanced to The Graduate School competition on or before Friday, January 23, 2026.
• The Arts and Sciences 3MT will provide a grant to the top three competition awardees, transferred to their home department to be used for research and/or professional development:
  • First place (Arts and Sciences 3MT nominee): $500
  • Second place: $350
  • Third place: $250
• The Graduate School will select the institutional nominee during their in-person 3MT competition on February 4, 2026.
• The Ohio State University finalist will be advancing to the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition in Kansas City, Mo., from March 25-27, 2026.

Previous winners

2024

• 1st Place and College of Arts & Sciences Nominee to the Graduate School competition: Rene Castillo, School of Earth Sciences, Completing The Puzzle: Integration of Core, Logging, Seismic and Physical Experiments for Comprehensive Geohazard Assessments
• 2nd Place: Lingyu Ouyang, Department of Geography, Feathers, fields, and fowl cholera: Unveiling the environmental role in fowl cholera outbreaks
• 3rd Place: Karen Kim, School of Music, Constructionism in Teaching Beginner Level Contrapuntal Skills

2023

• 1st Place and College of Arts & Sciences nominee to the Graduate School competition: Alyssa Bedrosian, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, ‘Un Lenguaje Sencillo y un Toque De Humor’: Strategies for a 21st Century Digital Catholic Feminist Activism
• 2nd Place: Morgan Ross, School of Communication, Spatial Habits Make Phone Habits Stronger
• 3rd Place: Yoon Ji Kim, Department of Statistics, Sequential Alignment of Functions
• Honorable Mentions
  • Kassidie Harmon, Department of Psychology, Emotion Control, Psychopathology, and Race
  • Tejas Prasanna, Department of Physics, Multi-Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Models of Proto-Neutron Star Winds

The Graduate Associate Teaching Award is Ohio State’s highest recognition of the exceptional teaching provided by graduate students serving as Graduate Teaching Associates.

The Graduate Associate Leadership Award (GALA) is Ohio State’s recognition of the exceptional leadership provided by graduate students as leaders (on and off campus) while being a graduate (master’s or doctoral) student.