The Rex Montgomery Dissertation Prize is endowed by a generous gift from Dr. Rex Montgomery and recognizes the most meritorious dissertation by a doctoral student conducting research in prevention of disease and/or the translation of research into clinical practice.

Students from a variety of graduate programs are eligible, including the biomedical and health sciences, as well as related social sciences.

Departments are limited to nominating one candidate. To be eligible, students must have received or completed all requirements for the doctorate during the period of July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024. 

The winner of the Rex Montgomery Dissertation Prize is eligible to become the University of Iowa's nominee in the national competition for the Council of Graduate Schools/University Microfilms International Distinguished Dissertation Award in years when Biological and Life Sciences is an award category.

See a list of past winners and their dissertation titles.

Nominations for the 2024 prize should be submitted online by May 23, 2024, and must include:

  • An abstract of the nominee's dissertation (not to exceed five double-spaced pages). Appendices containing other material, such as charts, tables, and/or references, may be included as additional pages (not to exceed five pages).
  • Three letters of recommendation evaluating the significance and quality of the nominee's dissertation work. One of these letters 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)
  • A three-page, double-spaced dissertation summary in non-technical language, presenting the purpose, methods, and results of the research, and a clear statement of its significance within the discipline.
  • A complete pdf copy of the dissertation. In order to successfully upload to workflow, the file must be under 40MG. Please save the pdf as a reduced file size before attempting to upload. 

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