Wallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral
Dissertation Award: Nomination Instructions

The Wallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award was initiated in 2013 and first awarded in 2014.  The award is given at the AERE Summer Conference held each year in lae May/early June.  The winner receives a $1,500 cash award along with a $500 travel grant to attend a recognition ceremony at the conference.  The winner’s dissertation abstract is also published in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (JAERE).  A list of prior awardees can be found here.

Criteria for selection:  Dissertations will be judged by a panel of AERE members who will emphasize originality of research, quality of implementation, expositional clarity, along with the intellectual and practical significance of research findings.

Nomination Process:  Nominees must have written a doctoral dissertation in environmental or resource economics.  Nominations must come from the chair (co-chairs) of the nominee’s dissertation committee and must include (1) a nominating letter from the chair outlining the particular strengths and intellectual contributions of the dissertation, and (2) an electronic version of the final and completed doctoral dissertation. For dissertations with coauthored chapters, the nomination letter must detail the relative contributions of the nominee relative to other coauthors. The nominating chair of the dissertation committee must be a current AERE member at the time of nomination.

Nominees must have completed all the requirements for their doctoral degree by August 15 of the year in which they are being considered for the award, which includes acceptance of the final and complete dissertation by the nominee's university (the degree may be officially conferred in a graduation ceremony at a later date, usually no later than the end of the calendar year). 

Please refer to the schedule below to determine which award a nominee is eligible for:


Award
Year
Dates between which all degree
requirements must be completed.
Date nomination
is due
2024 August 16, 2023 to August 15, 2024 September 30, 2024
2025 August 16, 2024 to August 15, 2025 December 1, 2025
2026 August 16, 2025 to August 15, 2026 December 1, 2026
2027 August 16, 2026 to August 15, 2027 December 1, 2027
2028 August 16, 2027 to August 15, 2028 December 1, 2028
 
Submit your nomination>> 

Receipt of nomination packages will be confirmed via email.

Awards Ceremony:  The Outstanding Dissertation Award ceremony takes place at the AERE Summer Conference held each year in late May/early June.  Awardees will be notified in advance to provide ample time to make travel arrangements to attend the recognition ceremony.

Questions? Email [email protected]