Background
CIB’s Student Chapters Committee seeks to advance built environment research by recognizing and rewarding outstanding work of emerging researchers. Accordingly, a Best Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation Award will be given in 2021 to recognize researchers whose PhD has been confirmed by their faculty advisor between 1 April 2020 and 30 September 2021. Submitted dissertations are judged by an Awards Committee appointed by the CIB Board. In selecting the award recipients, the Awards Committee considers the following: importance of the built environment issue; writing style, readability, and flow; methodology; and the contribution of the research.
Award
The Best Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation Award carries with it a €1,500 cash prize for the winner and a €500 cash prize each for the 2 top runners-up.
Rules and Submission Procedures
The completed dissertation must have been confirmed by the faculty advisor between 1 April 2020 and 30 September 2021. The award eligibility spread of 18 months will allow for students who might confirm the PhD at the end of the cycle to submit in the following year’s competition; however, students can only submit one time. The author of the dissertation must be a member of the CIB Student Chapter. Doctoral researchers wishing to be considered for the award should submit the following materials to their University CIB Student Chapter Faculty Liaison:
- A detailed dissertation abstract in PDF format, not to exceed 4 pages. The abstract should explain the research question addressed in the doctoral thesis/dissertation, the importance of the research, how the dissertation builds on prior work, samples, hypotheses, methodologies, and research results.
- A letter from the researcher’s committee chair (in PDF format), not to exceed 2 pages, attesting that the completed dissertation was confirmed during the period 1 April 2020 and 30 September 2021. This letter may be in the form of a nomination and may include an assessment of the importance and quality of the work.
- The complete dissertation in PDF format.
Each University with an active Student Chapter may only select 1 doctoral thesis/dissertations to submit to CIB for consideration. Therefore, individual Universities and CIB Student Chapters must decide the process for selecting the lone nominee. The University’s CIB Student Chapter Faculty Liaison should submit the required materials for the nominee as an email attachment by the deadline to [email protected] NO LATER THAN 1 October 2021.
Selection
An Awards Committee selected by the CIB Board will evaluate all applications. The top 3 doctoral researchers will be notified by 31 October of their selection. They will be invited to deliver a presentation in November 2021 to compete for the CIB Best Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation Award. Presentations will last 5 minutes and will be followed by a question and answer period with the judges. We envision the event open to all CIB members. A winner’s webinar will be held in early 2022 and a presentation at the World Building Congress.
