Dr. Eleonora Dávalos, Public Policy, and Dr. Britney Phippen, Biological Sciences, are recipients of the 2018 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award.
This award is presented each year by the Graduate School to recognize outstanding research and scholarship by a doctoral student at UNC Charlotte.
Dávalos’ dissertation focuses on the effects of the strategies used to control illicit new coca crops in Colombia.
“Our judges thought that your findings were surprising,” said Tom Reynolds, Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School. The judges, he noted, “pointed out that your topic has been rarely studied and adds a great deal to the discipline.”
Phippen is researching the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus. Often found in shellfish, it is “the most fatal seafood borne pathogen in the world,” according to Phippen’s research summary.
Reynolds said the award judges called Phippen’s work “an impressive bit of multidisciplinary work,” and “a solid and important contribution.”
Both Dávalos and Phippen will be entered in a national dissertation competition at the Council of Graduate Schools. That competition includes a $2,000 honorarium.