Achievement

Each year the UA’s College of Arts Sciences recognizes outstanding dissertation research. During Fall 2008, Dan McGarvey’s dissertation (Longitudinal Zonation and the Structure of North American Fish Assemblages) was selected as Best Dissertation from nominations by UA science and math departments. Selections are made based on the scientific merit of the work, the potential impact of the research on the field, publications from the dissertation and the stature of the publication outlets. The strength of Dr. McGarvey’s nomination was directly related to our IGERT theme and education elements, i.e., the continental scale of the research, collaborative requirements to accumulate the necessarily large dataset, number of published papers (6), and the high quality journals in which the research appeared. Also noted was that McGarvey’s publications appeared in diverse outlets, i.e., technical journals, a law review, and journals for the wider scientific community (e.g. BioScience).