Distinguished Thesis Award
The Distinguished Thesis Award is awarded to graduate students in the department whose MS thesis is well-conceived, presents an original contribution, and clearly communicates the scientific significance of the work.
See the recipients of this award below.
-
2023:
Bethany Kharrazi; A Conceptual Framework for Managed Aquifer Recharge in the Columbia River Basalts of the Lower Yakima River Basin -
2022:
Trent Adams; Detecting Impacts of Historic and Undocumented Landslide Tsunamis at High Latitude Sites Using NDVI. - 2021:
Alyssa DeMott; Long-Term Geomorphic Effects of the Glines Canyon Dam Removal on the Elwha River Washington, USA.
Valerie Strasser; The Role of Cumulate Plagioclase Entrainment in the Steens Basalt, SE Oregon: Insights from the Magma Chamber Simulator. - 2020:
Elizabeth Curtiss; Documenting the Earthquake History of the Thousand Springs Fault in Summer Lake Basin, Oregon, USA - 2019:
Andrew Hoxey; Spatial and temporal characterization of the Petrified Springs Fault, Central Walker Lane, Nevada: documenting middle Miocene dextral slip. - 2018:
Conner Toth; Giant Plagioclase in the Steens Basalt, SE Oregon: Cumulate Entrainment Revealed by Textural and In Situ Chemical Analysis. - 2017:
David Hernandez Uribe; Estimating the Thickness of an Ultrahigh-Pressure (UHP) Terrane: Insights from Phase Equilibria Modelling and Zr-in-Rutile Thermometry, Dulan Area, North Qaidam Terrane, Northwest China.
Dallin Jensen; Isotope investigation of nitrate in soils and agricultural drain waters of the Lower Yakima Valley, Washington.
Ted Uecker; Post-wildfire black carbon deposition on the snowpack in the Cascade Range, Washington State: Temporal and spatial variability with implications for accelerated melt. - 2016:
Brian Ostrom; Hazard identification and coastal stratigraphy in Crescent Harbor and Dugualla Bay, northeast Whidbey Island. - 2015:
Brent Ritzinger; Paleomagnetic mapping of late Miocene-Pliocene basalt flows in the northwestern Basin and Range: determining structural and topographic controls on the distribution of volcanic activity.
Kaitlyn Nelson; Constraining timing and source of alkali-enrichment at Mt. Etna, Sicily using in situ clinopyroxene data. - 2014:
Andy Menking; Black carbon measurements of snow and ice using the single particle soot photometer: method development and an AD 1852-1999 record of atmospheric black carbon from a Mount Logan ice core. - 2013:
Aaron Mayfield; Documenting compositional diversity in the Fossa delle Felci (Salina Island, South Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy): Integrating quantitative models and in situ chemical analyses. - 2012:
Jim Rinke; Surface Wave Inversion of the Upper Mantle Velocity Structure in the Ross Sea Region, Western Antarctica. - 2011: not awarded
- 2010:
Caitlin Orem; Lacustrine sediment record of multiple Quaternary lava dams on the Owyhee River, southeastern Oregon. - 2009:
Jackie Langille; Middle Crustal Ductile Deformation Patterns in southern Tibet: Insights from Vorticity Studies in Mabja Dome.
CWU News
CWU to host nationally recognized conservationist tonight at The Ridge
May 11, 2026 by Marketing and Communications
Two CWU Nutrition students earn awards from leading national organization
May 11, 2026 by Rune Torgersen