• Vivian T. Stannett Graduate Award for Outstanding Early Publication nomination package
• Nomination packages are due in late February or early March. The nominee should submit their nomination package by email to Danielle Riegel in late February or early March.
• The awardee will be given the title of “20XX Vivian T. Stannett Fellow.”
• Nominee should be Ph.D. graduate student between her/his 1st and 4th year of study.
• The Award is based on a research publication from work at NC State where the nominee is first author (should be published or accepted for publication, with an acceptance date before the submission deadline).
• The Stannett Fellow Award Committee will select the awardee on the basis of the quality of the nomination publication, while also taking into account the extent of personal contribution of the nominee and the overall research and achievement record of the nominee.
• The application process for the Vivian T. Stannett Fellow award will be announced in January, due in early February, with an awardee to be announced by March.
• One Fellow and one runner-up awardee will be selected each year.
• The monetary value of the award is $1,500 for the Fellow and $750 for the runner up. Depending on the availability of funds, the Award may also include up to $1,000 travel supplement for a Fellow’s presentation at a professional conference. These travel funds must be used in the calendar year of the award and matched equally by advisor’s funds.

• Nomination packages are due by mid-December. Eligible nominees will have earned their PhD during that calendar year and are nominated by a CBE faculty member, typically the major advisor.
• Nomination packages should include the following: CV of student nominee, paper reprints, and three letters of recommendation from (1) the nominating faculty member, (2) another faculty member (from any institution) who is familiar with the student’s accomplishments, and (3) a student peer.
• A faculty committee will review application packets, and awardees will be notified in early spring each year.
• The recipient will be invited to the CBE graduation ceremony in May and will receive a commemorative plaque. CBE will pay travel expenses to the awardee.

The process by which the awardee is selected begins with a student evaluation administered in courses with a TA near the end of each semester. The evaluation provided to each student in such a course consists of a yes/no recommendation to nominate one TA, a numerical rating (from 1 to 99) of the TA, and four rated questions regarding overall performance. After all the evaluations are administered, they are analyzed to determine the fraction of students in each course who answer with a yes recommendation. Fractions calculated in this fashion for each TA in a given semester are used to determine the average and standard deviation, after which the Z-score (i.e., the number of standard deviations above/below the mean) is computed for each TA. To account for differences in class size, a similar approach is undertaken in terms of course enrollment. These two Z scores are weighted (75% for student evaluations and 25% for course enrollment) to yield the final score that is used for selection of six finalists. Since this award can only be won once, previous winners appearing as finalists in subsequent semesters will be disqualified from the selection process.Each semester, a selection committee composed of three faculty members who have not worked alongside any finalists will be formed to evaluate the nominees and select the winner. In addition to information regarding the average numerical rating and distribution of the rated questions, the committee will be provided with letters of recommendation from the faculty instructors who worked with the finalists. The names of the finalists will be announced to the Department at least one week before the winner is announced. The award will be presented to the winner at the Schoenborn Symposium in October (for spring semester winners) or the first Departmental Graduate Seminar in January (for fall semester winners).