Past Winners
Each year, the Spriestersbach Prize winners become the University of Iowa's nominees for the Council of Graduate Schools/University Microfilms International Distinguished Dissertation Award. This national award is the most prestigious dissertation prize in the country.
Iowa has five national winners, more than any public institution. Fifteen more Iowa nominees have been finalists in the competition.
2023 Winners
- Andrew Voigt, Biomedical Science (Molecular Medicine)
Robert Mullins and Todd Scheetz, Dissertation Co-Advisors
Molecular Analysis of the Human Retina and Choroid at the Single Cell Level - George Rozsa, American Studies
Stephen Warren , Dissertation Advisor
The Nevada Movement: Trans-Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Solidarity at the End of the Cold War
2022 Winners
- Darcy Diesburg, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Jan Wessel, Dissertation Advisor
Conceptualizing Mechanisms of Human Movement Cancellation within a Pause-then-Cancel Model of Motor Inhibition - Stephen McMillan, Physics and Astronomy
Michael Flatté , Dissertation Advisor
Spin-Selective Transport in Semi-Conductor Spintronics and Single-Defect Quantum Technology
2021 Winners
- Darcy Metcalfe, Religious Studies
Diana Fritz Cates, Dissertation Advisor
Ethics of the Inheritable Genetic Modification of Human Embryos via CRISPR Technology: Pauli Murray and the Institutionalized Control of Black Women's Reproductive Lives - Benton Purnell, Neuroscience
Gordon Buchanan, Dissertation Advisor
The Effect of Time-of-Day and Circadian Phase on Breathing and Vulnerability to Seizure-Induced Respiratory Amest and Death
2020 Winners
- Alaine Reschke-Hernandez, Music Therapy
Kate Gfeller and Daniel Tranel, Dissertation Advisors
A Clinical Practice Model of Music Therapy to Address Psychosocial Functioning for Persons with Dementia: Model Development and Randomized Clinical Crossover Trial - Brett Bahle, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Andrew Hollingworth, Dissertation Advisor
The Architecture of the Priority Map Used to Guide Visual Attention - Samuel Brensinger, Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences
Vincent Rodgers, Dissertation Advisor
Projective Gauge Gravity
2019 Winners
- Rajula Elango, Integrated Biology
Anna Malkova, Dissertation Advisor
Break-induced Replication Repair Pathway Promotes Mutagenesis and Genomic Instability in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae - Stefan Schöberlein, English
Ed Folsom, Dissertation Advisor
Cerebral Imaginaries: Brains and Literature in the Transatlantic Sphere, 1800-1880
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist
2018 Winners
- Emily Kroska, Psychology
Michael O'Hara, Dissertation Advisor
How Much is Enough in brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy? - Greg Ongie, Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences
Mathews Jacob, Dissertation Advisor
Off-the-grid Compressive Imaging
2017 Winners
- Viral Shah, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Michael Welsh, Dissertation Advisor
Mechanisms of Acid and Base Secretion: Implications for Airway Host Defense in Cystic Fibrosis - John Eicher, History
H. Glenn Penny, Dissertation Advisor
Now Too Much for Us: German and Mennonite Transnationalisms, 1874–1944
2016 Winner
- Efthymia (Effie) Kapnoula, Psychology
Bob McMurray, Dissertation Advisor
Individual Differences in Speech Perception: Sources, Functions, and Consequences of Phoneme Categorization Gradiency
2015 Winners
- Erin Peters, Art History
Brenda Longfellow, Dissertation Advisor
Egypt in Empire: Augustan Temple Art and Architecture at Karnak, Philae, Kalabsha, Dendur, and Alexandria - Karen Thompson, Biology
Bernd Fritzsch, Dissertation Advisor
Ear Manipulations Help Model Neuroplasticity Limitations
2014 Winners
- Aaron Buss, Psychology
John Spencer, Dissertation Advisor
Closing the Development Loop on the Neurocognitive Dynamics of Task Switching - David Gaebler, Mathematics
Paul Muhly, Dissertation Advisor
Unital Dilations of Completely Positive Semigroups
2013 Winners
- Melissa Moreton, History
Constance A. Berman, Dissertation Advisor
'Scritto di bellissima lettera': Nuns’ Book Production in Fifteenth and Sixteenth-Century Italy - Daniel Mohr Collier, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Peter M. Snyder, Dissertation Advisor
Regulation of Epithelial Sodium Channel (Enac) Activity by Extracellular Stimuli
2012 Winners
- Fabian Aurelio Soto, Psychology
Ed Wasserman, Dissertation Advisor
Developing and Testing A Common Elements Theory of Object Categorization Learning by Pigeons - Jacob Matthias Elkins, Biomedical Engineering
Joseph Reinhardt, Dissertation Advisor
Biomechanics of Failure Modalities in Total Hip Arthroplasty
Also, CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist
2011 Winners
- David Riep, Art History
Christopher D. Roy, Dissertation Advisor
House of the Crocodile: South Sotho Art and History in Southern Africa - Megan Ealy, Genetics
Richard Smith, Dissertation Advisor
Otosclerosis – Identifying Genetic Contributors to a Complex Hearing Disorder
2010 Winners
- Vanessa R. Simmering, Psychology
John P. Spencer, Dissertation Advisor
Developing a Magic Number: The Dynamic Field Theory Reveals Why Visual Working Memory Capacity Estimates Differ Across Tasks and Development
Also, CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist - Amrit De, Physics
Craig E. Pryor, Dissertation Advisor
Spin Dynamics and Opto-Electronic Properties of Some Novel Semiconductor Systems
2009 Winners
- Adam Ziemann, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Michael Welsh, Dissertation Supervisor
Effects of Low pH on Seizures and Fear: A Critical Role for Acid-Sensing Ion Channels
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist - Samuel Graber, American Studies
John Raeburn, Dissertation Supervisor
Twice-Divided Nation: The Civil War and National Memory in the Transatlantic World
2008 Winners
- Jessica Horst, Psychology
Larissa K. Samuelson, Dissertation Supervisor
Turning Novel Names into Known Names: Understanding Referent Selection and Retention in 24-Month-Old Children and Neural Networks
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Winner - Veronique Ziegler, Physics and Astronomy
Usha Mallik, Dissertation Supervisor
Hyperon and Hyperon Resonance Properties from Charm Baryon Decay at BaBar
2007 Winners
- Michael Chasar, English
Adalaide Morris, Dissertation Supervisor
Everyday Reading: US Poetry and Popular Culture, 1880-1945
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Winner - Michael R. Koenigs, Neuroscience
Daniel Tranel, Dissertation Supervisor
A Novel Role for Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Emotion and Decision-Making: Lesion Studies of Moral Judgment, Economic Choice and Brand Preference
2006 Winners
- Marius V. Ionescu, Mathematics
Paul Muhly, Dissertation Supervisor
C*-Algebras Associated with Mauldin-Williams Graphs - Katherine B. Dernbach, Anthropology
Mac Marshall, Dissertation Supervisor
Popular Religion: A Cultural and Historical Study of Catholicism and Spirit Possession in Chuuk, Micronesia
2005 Winners
- Kristin King Gilbert, Art History
Dorothy Johnson, Dissertation Supervisor
Pedagogical Innovation and Reform at the Académie de France à Rome during the Directorate of Charles Joseph Natoire (1752-1775) - Salil Anil Lachke, Biological Sciences
David Soll, Dissertation Supervisor
Developmental Biology of "Candida Albicans" and "Candida Glabrata" and Its Clinical Significance
2004 Winners
- Hind A. Al-Abadleh, Chemistry
Vicki Grassian, Dissertation Supervisor
Heterogeneous Reactions of Atmospheric Gases on Oxide, Carbonate and Soot Surfaces - C. Wesley Brakefield-Younts, Sociology
Lisa Troyer, Dissertation Supervisor
Status, Validation and the Legitimacy of Deviance
2003 Winners
- Angela Hess, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Mary Hendrix, Dissertation Supervisor
Molecular Dissection of Melanoma Tumor Cell Vasculogenic Mimicry
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist - Michael Tavel Clarke, English
Ed Folsom, Dissertation Supervisor
These Days of Large Things: The Culture of Size in America, 1865-1930
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist
2002 Winners
- Nathan William Brixius, Computer Science
Kurt Anstreicher, Dissertation Supervisor
Solving Large-Scale Quadratic Assignment Problems
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist - Bettina Fabos, Education
Cynthia Lewis, Dissertation Supervisor
A Commercial Highway in Every Classroom: Investigating Web Content in U.S. Schools
2001 Winners
- Eric Fure-Slocum, History
Shelton Stromquist, Dissertation Supervisor
The Challenge of the Working-class City: Recasting Growth Politics and Liberalism in Milwaukee, 1937-1952 - Josef Parvizi, Neuroscience
Antonio Damasio & Gary Van Hoesen, Co-Dissertation Supervisors
The Signature of Alzheimer's Disease in the Brainstem
2000 Winners
- Christopher Otrok, Economics
B. Ravikumar, Dissertation Supervisor
Implications of Temporally Dependent Preferences for Asset Pricing Puzzles and the Welfare Cost of Business Cycles: A Spectral Investigation
Also CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Finalist - Marius Stefan, Mathematics
Florin Radulescu, Dissertation Supervisor
Some Indecomposability Properties of Free Group Factors
Winners prior to 2000
- 1999 Daryl A. Scott, Genetics (CGS/UMI Finalist)
- 1999 Eric Griffin, English (CGS/UMI Finalist)
- 1998 Razvan Gelca, Mathematics (CGS/UMI Finalist)
- 1998 Randy Ziegenhorn, Anthropology
- 1997 Susan Behrends Frank, Art History (CGS/UMI Winner)
- 1997 Jeff E. Engel, Biology
- 1996 Claire Fox, Comparative Literature
- 1995 Bing Ji, Physics & Astronomy
- 1994 Mary Beth Solner-O'Hagan, Psychology
- 1993 Matthew Anderson, Physiology (CGS/UMI Winner)
- 1992 Alice Adams, English (CGS/UMI Finalist)
- 1991 Lin Hua Shan, Physics
- 1990 Jeffrey Ostler, History
- 1989 Judith Stoll, Biology (CGS/UMI Finalist)
- 1988 Dennis Bielfeldt, Religion
- 1987 Robert Bosch, Physics
- 1986 Marcelline Hutton, History
- 1985 Robert Finney, Biology
- 1984 David Lasocki, Music (CGS/UMI Winner)
- 1983 Hector Salas, Mathematics
- 1982 John Ims, Psychology
- 1981 Mark Knuepfer, Pharmacology (CGS/UMI Finalist)