Home 2025 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards 2025 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards The quality and diversity of doctoral dissertations produced each year by Rackham students is key to the distinction that the University of Michigan has earned as one of the world’s great research universities. Rackham’s doctoral students contribute innovative research and scholarship at the highest level in many fields. Each year, truly exceptional dissertations are recognized with the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards. Faculty who have served as chairs of dissertation committees nominate outstanding students who have completed their dissertations. These nominations are reviewed by a faculty panel and then read closely by postdoctoral fellows who are members of the Michigan Society of Fellows, a unique interdisciplinary community of outstanding scholars. The awards are co-sponsored by ProQuest, a global information-content and technology company based in Ann Arbor that publishes more than 200,000 dissertations and theses annually, including more than 800 by University of Michigan graduate students. We are delighted to have ProQuest, part of Clarivate, as a partner in celebrating the accomplishments of these scholars and recognizing the excellence of their doctoral dissertations. Mike Solomon Dean, Rackham Graduate School Vice Provost for Academic Affairs–Graduate Studies Award Recipients Honorable Mentions Distinguished Dissertation Award Nominees Readers from the Michigan Society of Fellows Award Recipients Jason Lee Byas Ph.D., Philiosopy, 2025 M.A., Philosophy, Georgia State University, 2017 B.A., Philosophy, University of Oklahoma, 2014 Decriminalizing Crime: Accountability Without the Retributive Ritual Jason Byas’s dissertation, Decriminalizing Crime: Accountability Without the Retributive Ritual, addresses a longstanding and profound debate over how a society should respond to egregious wrongdoing. A powerful contribution to the fields of political philosophy and the philosophy of law, Byas’s dissertation approaches this problem with uncommon intellectual generosity and nuance. In four chapters that do incisive analytical work, Byas begins from familiar retributivist claims, works through what makes them compelling, then lays out a meticulous philosophical defense for abolitionism and non-punitive alternatives—all while never dismissing the emotional and moral intuitions at the core of the retributivist argument. In addition to its analytical work, Byas’s dissertation embodies qualities that are rare in academic writing: self-reflection and intellectual humility. Moreover, in its careful work deconstructing two seemingly opposed lines of thought—retributivist theories and abolitionist theories—to make them comprehensible, Byas’s work offers productive possibilities for academics and researchers working in fields outside of the discipline of philosophy. With lucid and probing prose, Byas’s work is commendable for how it looks beyond entrenched binaries to do the intellectually challenging work of opening space for alternatives. As Byas puts it, “there is always more work to do to build rational bridges from one perspective to another.” In addition to being an outstanding dissertation, the methodologies and intellectual commitments at the dissertation’s core hold great promise for Byas’s future academic contributions. For these reasons, Byas’s work is recognized with the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Narrative by: Phoebe Springstubb Dissertation Committee Elizabeth S. Anderson, Chair David Sussman Renee Jorgensen Gabriel Mendlow So-Bin Cho Ph.D., Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, 2025 M.S., Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, 2019 B.S., Physics, 2016 Nuclear Energy Hub with Energy Storage: A Pragmatic Design Approach to Support Scalable Energy Solutions So-Bin has presented a brilliant dissertation that will undoubtedly pave the way forward for how nuclear energy is considered within the energy matrix. Indeed, less than a year after receiving their doctorate, So-Bin’s results are already being used and incorporated into the modeling platforms of Idaho National Laboratory and new graduate students are being trained on So-Bin’s methods to further their work. Many scientists can produce elegant models, but few are capable of transforming their results into actionable items for policy makers; So-Bin is one of them. In the dissertation, Nuclear Energy Hub with Energy Storage: A Pragmatic Design Approach to Support Scalable Energy Solutions, clear guidelines are presented in order to shape the pathway of incorporating nuclear energy into the industry in a safe and optimized way. These results will undoubtedly have long-lasting effects for the United States and a more sustainable future. Narrative by: Teresa Paneque-Carreño Dissertation Committee Xiaodong Sun, Co-Chair Todd Allen, Co-Chair Michael Craig Rami M. Saeed Ben Goehring Ph.D., Political Science and Public Policy, 2025 B.A., Political Science and Philosophy, The George Washington University, 2017 The States of American Bureaucracy Benjamin Goehring’s The States of American Bureaucracy offers a valuable contribution to the study of public administration, utilizing an impressive dataset of personnel records across several states. Moving beyond federal-centric studies, Goehring provides a rigorous examination of the causes of turnover within state governments, specifically focusing on civil service protections and working conditions. Challenging conventional narratives, the dissertation finds no evidence in Mississippi or Florida that rolling back tenure protections led to the systematic purging of political opponents. However, the removal of tenure protections led to an increase in turnover, particularly among longer-serving employees. Additionally, Goehring’s analysis of Texas prisons demonstrates a significant correlation between excessive heat and turnover among correctional officers. Goehring’s research will surely advance studies of state bureaucracies. Narrative by: Aabid Allibhai Dissertation Committee Charles Shipan, Chair Kenneth Lowande Ken Kollman Kevin Quinn Christian Fong Maximilian Jerdee Ph.D., Physics, 2025 A.B., Physics, Princeton University, 2020 Inference and Information in Network Structure Max’s dissertation, Inference and Information in Network Structure, presents a beautiful intersection between two areas of knowledge that are often considered distant. Through the application of a complex mathematical and physical framework, Max is able to further our understanding of social hierarchies and depths of human interactions. The results from this model allow a systematic comparison across networks and societies. Max’s peers praise the thoughtfulness and detail given to the dissertation, highlighting how the introduction goes beyond to be a clear and self-consistent piece of scholarly work. With the technical, communication, and scientific abilities proved through this study, it is clear Max has a bright future ahead paved by creativity, generosity, and brilliance. Narrative by: Teresa Paneque-Carreño Dissertation Committee Mark Newman, Chair Elizabeth Bruch Xiaoming Mao Abigail Jacobs Cagliyan Kurdak Jianhao Ma Ph.D., Industrial and Operational Engineering, 2025 B.E., Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, 2020 B.S., Mathematics, Tsinghua University, 2020 Implicit Regularization of Gradient Descent in Realistic Settings In Ma’s dissertation, he lays out a clear plan for addressing three specific challenges for understanding implicit regularization in gradient-based machine learning and carries this out in a structured and meticulous way. One specific and potentially profound finding from Ma’s work is that saddle points in gradient descent do not necessarily impede optimization as had been previously thought. Described more than once by his recommenders as a “mathematical genius,” Ma exemplifies technical rigor paired with mathematical precision throughout. It is clear from Ma’s writing that this dissertation will not only be a jumping off point to a sparkling career but also has the makings of a dissertation that will impact the field of machine learning as a whole. Overall, Ma’s dissertation indeed shines through as technical yet precise and clearly groundbreaking. Narrative by: Erik Peterson Dissertation Committee Salar Fattahi, Chair Albert S. Berahas Wei Hu Jon Lee Aditya Varma Muppala Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2025 M.S., Mathematics, 2023 M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2020 B.Tech., Electronics and Communication Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, 2018 New Directions in Millimeter-Wave Imaging: Systems, Circuits, and Algorithms Muppala is a master at making complicated systems comprehensible and compelling. Although the work described in this dissertation is extremely technical, Muppala streamlines the relevant issue and attacks it both rigorously and effectively. In Muppala’s dissertation, imaging radar systems, which can be used for numerous safety, health, and scientific purposes, are described as unnecessarily rare and expensive, and Muppala champions the path forward towards cheap, accessible, and ubiquitous imaging radar systems. One specific innovation Muppala has brought to the field are affine synthetic arrays, which are potentially game-changing for making these imaging systems scalable. In the dissertation, Muppala’s skill with effective communication is perhaps most apparent in the plethora of creative and insightful figures presented throughout. It is no surprise that Muppala is already in a tenure-track position. Muppala is clearly poised to change not only the field of imaging systems but potentially our world as we know it. Narrative by: Erik Peterson Dissertation Committee Kamal Sarabandi Ehsan Afshari Jeff Fessler Anthony Grbic Bogdan Ioan Popa Michael Flynn Siliang Song Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2025 B.S., Biological Science, 2018 Selections in Molecular and Phenotypic Evolution For decades, the Neutral Theory has served as the prevailing framework for molecular evolution, positing that the vast majority of genetic mutations are functionally neutral. While long-term genomic data supports this view through low rates of permanent genetic change, Song’s dissertation demonstrates that beneficial mutations are actually far more abundant than this theory assumes. To reconcile this discordance, Song proposes the theory of adaptive tracking, which suggests that populations are continuously adapting to fluctuating environments, but these adaptations rarely become fixed in the genome because selection pressures shift too rapidly. Beyond this theoretical advance, the dissertation resolves a major empirical controversy by providing genomic evidence for the heritability of the human sex ratio, confirming Fisher’s principle after decades of debate. This work is excellent because it offers a unified mechanism that explains how pervasive natural selection drives evolution without contradicting the neutral patterns observed in long-term data. Narrative by: Anne Kort Dissertation Committee Jianzhi Zhang, Chair Luis Zaman, Co-Advisor Alexey Kondrashov Jun Li Alika Sulaman Ph.D., Neuroscience, 2025 M.A., Neuroscience, 2021 B.A., Neuroscience and Behavior, Vassar College, 2019 Neural Circuits Underlying Sleep Control and Memory Consolidation We are all familiar with the importance of a good night’s sleep, but the complex neurological processes underlying sleep have been difficult to untangle. Sulaman’s dissertation, using mice as a model organism, combined behavioral data with advanced techniques for measuring brain activity to uncover the mechanisms at play during the transition to sleep and memory consolidation. Most notably, Sulaman was able to demonstrate that dopamine, commonly known as the “feel-good” neurotransmitter, plays a pivotal role in consolidating motor memory but not reward-based memory. This required rigorous testing with a creative experimental design, including creating a unique balance beam task to test motor learning in the mice. This well-written dissertation unlocks new avenues, not only for sleep research, but for major questions in neuroscience more broadly. Narrative by: James Boyko Dissertation Committee Ada Eban-Rothschild, Chair Lois Weisman Gideon Rothschild Josie Clowney Kent Berridge Meixin Yuan Ph.D., Urban and Regional Planning, 2025 M.S., Information, 2022 M.A., Urban and Regional Planning, 2020 B.A., Agriculture in Landscape Architecture, Northwest A&F University, 2017 Big Data for Urban Health: Examining Where People Live, Work, and Play In its opening pages, Meixin Yuan’s dissertation reminds readers that before public health was formalized as a separate profession and field of academic study, “urban planners were also public health workers.” In this ambitious dissertation, Yuan uses quantitative and participatory methods to explore how the built environment is linked to racial health inequities in southeastern Michigan. Yuan expands on a rich literature connecting place and health outcomes, investigating not only the quality of places where people live, but, critically, their broader “activity space,” where individuals work, play, and pray beyond their place of residence. Through exhaustive empirical analyses, this dissertation makes the compelling case that the standard approach to studying place-based racial health disparities with residential data alone underestimates the true extent of health inequality. With added activity space indices, Yuan is better able to estimate disparities across a range of health outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Beyond its rigorous empirical analysis, this dissertation also adopts an applied, equity-focused lens. Working with urban planning and public health professionals in the local community, Yuan conducted interviews, focus groups, and workshops to explore how urban planners can better incorporate big data and health equity frameworks into the planning process. In this thorough, multi-method dissertation, Yuan makes the case that empirically grounded social science can have immediate applications beyond the academy; here, the question is clear: how might planners adapt their practice to play a leading role in improving health outcomes and reducing racial disparities? Narrative by: Mo Torres Dissertation Committee Robert Goodspeed, Chair Kimberley Kinder Roshanak Mehdipanah Anthony Vanky Joshua Schulze Ph.D., Film, Television, and Media, 2025 M.A., Research in Film and Television Studies, University of Warwick, 2019 B.A., Film and Literature, University of Warwick, 2017 Working Below Below-the-Line: Race, Labor, and Resources in World War II Hollywood The Michigan Society of Fellows is pleased to commend Joshua Schulze for the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards for their completed dissertation, Working Below Below-the-Line: Race, Labor, and Resources in World War II Hollywood. The selection committee was impressed by the breadth and depth of archival research that went into this work, as well as its topical and methodological originality, all powerfully illuminating the significance of a labor force long obscured by the Hollywood film industry and by dominant modes of historical inquiry. Schulze’s careful attention to local processes of production in disparate filming locations far from Los Angeles during the Second World War effectively challenges the longstanding binaristic division between above- and below-the-line labor in the film industry. By demonstrating how geographical distance from Los Angeles became, as Schulze writes, “a way of evading the oversight of craft guilds,” the work offers critical interventions for the study of racialized labor politics in the Hollywood film industry and in the World War II era more broadly. Across all five chapters of this ambitious dissertation, Schulze delivers on the project’s goals and claims, providing insights that will have an impact across multiple fields, including labor history, cultural history, film and media studies, and histories of race and racialization in the United States. Narrative by: Sylvia Ryerson Dissertation Committee Matthew Solomon, Chair Giorgio Bertellini Daniel Herbert Lisa Nakamura Caetlin Benson-Allott Honorable Mentions Back to Top Christopher Azaldegui, Chemical Biology, Mechanisms of Subcellular Organization in Bacteria Sanjana Eyunni, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, Chimeric AR Motifs and Neo-Enhancer Expansion in Prostate Cancer Development Jiajia Guo, Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics, Median Filters for Multiphase Interfacial Motions Martha Henzy, English Language and Literature, Performances of Witness: Public Selves in the Age of Memory Yasha Iravantchi, Computer Science and Engineering, Usable and Ubiquitous Privacy-Aware Sensing Devices Owen Kay, Public Policy and Economics, Essays on Optimal Energy Policy Alex Moskowitz, Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, Fracturing Narratives of Colonization: Views of Early Iron Age Sicily through Metals and Metallurgy Sangli Teng, Robotics, Optimization-Based Robot Control and State Estimation on Matrix Lie Groups Mira Vale, Sociology, Data Values: Moral Entrepreneurship in Digital Health Katja Vassilev, Mathematics, One-Dimensional Wave Kinetic Theory Distinguished Dissertation Award Nominees Back to Top Grace Arhin, Medicinal Chemistry Yun Chen, Social Work Alasdair Christison Gray, Aerospace Engineering Nagash Clarke, Engineering Education Research Caspian Goggin, Ancient History Maria Guevara, Chemical Engineering Yuxiang Huang, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Zachary Jerome, Civil Engineering Eskira Kahsay, Epidemiological Science Elizabeth Kitto, Molecular and Integrative Physiology Amanda Kubic, Comparative Literature Kayla Marcotte, Health Infrastructures and Learning Systems Ryan Migliore, Classical Studies Comfort Tamanda Mtotha, History Greggory Myers, Cell and Developmental Biology Galen Ng, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Annaliese Paulson, Higher Education Joshua Pickard, Bioinformatics Soo Hyun Ryu, Psychology Kallen Schwark, Cancer Biology Jennifer Sierra, Anthropology Anubha Singh, Information James Teuber, Pharmacology Sylvie Tran, Music Theory Carla Nathaly Villacis Nunez, Mechanical Engineering Di Wang, Biostatistics Kerry White, American Culture Maxwell Woody, Independent Interdepartmental Doctoral Program (Mechanical Engineering and Environment and Sustainability) Annie Zhang, Communication and Media Readers from the Michigan Society of Fellows Back to Top Aabid Allibhai, Law Zoë Berman, Afroamerican and African Studies Ismael Biyashev, History James Boyko, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Anne Kort, Earth and Environmental Sciences Paul Kurek, Germanic Languages and Literatures Justin Miller, Classical Studies Teresa Paneque-Carreño, Astronomy Erik Peterson, Physics Sylvia Ryerson, American Culture Phoebe Springstubb, History of Art Mo Torres, Sociology and Public Policy Julio Villa-Palomino, Anthropology
