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National Library News |
André Paul,
Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services
The CAGS/UMI Distinguished Dissertation awards were presented on October 28, 1999, at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) in Halifax. Two doctoral dissertations "that make unusually significant and original contributions to their academic field" were recognized in two discipline areas: engineering, medical science and natural sciences; and humanities and social sciences.
The 1999 award recipients are
Dr. Desmond Manderson, who received his doctorate in civil law from McGill University in 1997 for his thesis entitled Songs Without Music: Aesthetic Dimensions of Law and Justice;
Dr. Tom Woo, who received his doctorate in theoretical chemistry from the University of Calgary in 1998 for his thesis entitled Towards More Realistic Molecular Modeling of Catalysis with Density Functional Theory: Combined QM / MM and ab initio Molecular Dynamics Methods.
The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) and UMI Dissertation Publishing have sponsored these awards for the past six years. This year, the selection committee had to select the two winning candidates from among 47 nominees from across Canada (22 in the engineering, medical and natural sciences fields, and 25 in the humanities and social sciences category).
Recognizing distinguished doctoral dissertations is an initiative for which CAGS and UMI deserve a great deal of credit. The number of nominees within the specific scope of these awards indicates the level of quality Canadian doctoral studies have achieved. It also clearly demonstrates that thesis material is recognized as a valuable source in any research or bibliographical undertaking.
Access to Canadian theses is provided by the National Library through its Canadian Theses Service. These two theses as well as more than 180 000 others from 51 Canadian universities have been microfilmed through this program and are available for sale from Bell & Howell Information and Learning (formerly UMI), and are available on loan from the National Library. Bibliographic records for theses are available online in AMICUS and in the Canadiana CD-ROM bibliography.
Congratulations to the winners!