ANN ARBOR, Mich., December 7, 2006 - The nation's most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) / UMI Distinguished Dissertation Awards, were presented to Dr. Katey M. Walter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Dr. Paul M. Collins of the University of Houston. The winners were announced at a ceremony during the CGS 46th Annual Meeting here today, where each winner was given a certificate and a $1000 honorarium.

Now in its 25th year, the awards recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made exceptional contributions to their fields.  ProQuest/UMI, the nation's dissertation publisher, sponsors the awards and a committee from the Council of Graduate Schools selects the winners.  Two awards are given each year, rotating among four general areas of scholarship. 

Dr. Walter received the 2006 Award in Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering for her research on modeling climate change.  She was nominated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she received her Ph.D. earlier this year.  The Award in Social Sciences was presented to Dr. Collins for his work on the U.S. Supreme Court.  He was nominated by Binghamton University, where he completed his doctorate in 2005. 

"The exciting thing about each year's body of doctoral work is that it represents the leading edge of academic scholarship across disciplines," said UMI Director of Dissertations Publishing, Dr. Cathleen May.  "These two dissertations are extraordinary examples of how relevant doctoral work is to our society." 

Dr. Collins' dissertation is titled Friends of the Supreme Court: Examining the Influence of Interest Groups in the U.S. Supreme Court, 1946-2001.  In it, he analyzes how friend-of-the-court briefs submitted by interest groups affect Supreme Court justices' decision-making.  Dr. Collins found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, justices did in fact respond to persuasive legal arguments in these "amicus curiae".  He has been published in Law & Society Review and The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court, and for the last year has been an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston.

Dr. Walter's dissertation, Methane Emissions and Biogeochemistry of North Siberian Thermokarst Lakes, presents results of research to quantify methane emissions from Siberian lakes.  Since this source of methane appears to be significant, her data will improve the accuracy of climate models, and the results suggest an important positive feedback to global warming, especially at high latitudes.  A chapter of her dissertation already has been published in the prestigious journal Nature.  Dr. Walter is continuing her work as a postdoctoral fellow in biogeochemistry at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

About the Council of Graduate Schools

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS; www.cgsnet.org) is an organization of 475 institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada engaged in graduate education, research and the preparation of candidates for advanced degrees.  CGS member institutions award more than 90% of the doctoral degrees and over 75% of the master's degrees in the U.S.  The organization's mission is to improve and advance graduate education, which it accomplishes through advocacy in the federal policy arena, research, and the development and dissemination of best practices.

About UMI

Originally known as University Microfilms International, UMI was created in 1938 to safeguard threatened scholarly resources, and the brand has served as the dedicated steward of significant collections-including graduate works-ever since.  Its parent company is ProQuest Information and Learning (www.proquest.com), a world leader in collecting, organizing, and publishing information for researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. The ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database holds more than 2 million citations dating from 1861 and grows by another 55,000 each year.  As a committed supporter of graduate education, ProQuest is proud to honor this year's outstanding authors of the CGS/UMI Distinguished Dissertation Awards.

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

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