FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg
(202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2017 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. John North Hopkins, assistant professor of art history and classical studies at Rice University. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 57th Annual Meeting.

The Arlt Award is given annually to a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Hopkins becomes the award’s 47^th recipient for his book, The Genesis of Roman Architecture (Yale UP, 2016). He received his PhD in art history from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010.

In The Genesis of Roman Architecture, Hopkins offers a close investigation of a dissected architectural and urban fabric from Rome’s origins through the mid fifth century BCE. By focusing on individual elements of architectural creation—including architectonic practice, structural analysis, the style of decorative sculpture, and the social and political purpose of architectural manufacture—Hopkins assembles an image of Rome in continuous change through the beginning of the Republican period.  The outcome is a book that allows the archaeological and visual record to play the primary role in telling the story of Rome’s origins. Recent excavations—some still unpublished—are synthesized with the existing archaeological scholarship to create a holistic picture of the existing evidence.  The analysis of these materials in comparison with remains from across the ancient Mediterranean reveals that Romans, as much as any other cultures in the classical world (Greek, Etruscans, etc.), helped shape the genesis of Mediterranean artistic and socio-political movements that lie at the foundations of world history.

“The Council of Graduate Schools is delighted to present this year’s Arlt award to Dr. Hopkins. This award has a long and prestigious history of recognizing the outstanding scholarship by early-career humanities faculty,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. “Dr. Hopkins’ exceptional work is a valuable contribution to the study of early Rome.”

Created in 1971, the Arlt Award honors the first president of CGS, Gustave O. Arlt. The winner must have earned a doctorate within the past seven years, and currently be teaching at a North American university. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a panel of scholars in the field of competition, which rotates annually among seven disciplines within the humanities. This year’s field was Classical Studies/Archaeology. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium, a certificate, and travel to the awards ceremony.

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For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Katherine Hazelrigg, Council of Graduate Schools
(202) 461-3888 | khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Beth Dempsey, ProQuest
(248) 349-7810 | beth.dempsey@proquest.com

Awards recognize outstanding research by graduates in the fields of Biological and Life Sciences & Humanities and Fine Arts

Washington, DC -- The Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honors for doctoral dissertations, were presented to Chad Johnston and Leif Fredrickson during the Council’s 57th Annual Meeting award ceremony. Dr. Johnston completed his PhD in 2016 at McMaster University in Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and Dr. Fredrickson received his PhD in 2017 from the University of Virginia in History.

Bestowed annually since 1982, the awards recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made unusually significant and original contributions to their fields. ProQuest, an international leader in dissertation archiving, discovery, and access, sponsors the awards and an independent committee from the Council of Graduate Schools selects the winners. Two awards are given each year, rotating among four general areas of scholarship. The winners receive a certificate, a $2,000 honorarium, and funds for travel to the awards ceremony.

“The Distinguished Dissertation Awards recognize the significant contributions young scholars make in their disciplines,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “Dr. Johnston and Dr. Fredrickson’s work demonstrates the value and impact of graduate education to the world.”

“These are significant contributions to research on issues that are both timely and important to our communities,” said Austin McLean, director, ProQuest Scholarly Communication and Dissertations Publishing, “They are great exemplars of the groundbreaking work that is produced at universities. Speaking on behalf of all of us at ProQuest, we’re honored to help acknowledge and disseminate this research.”

The 2017 Award in Biological and Life Sciences was presented to Dr. Johnston for his dissertation, New Techniques Facilitate the Discovery and Study of Modular Microbial Natural Products. The rise in antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to modern healthcare. Increasing resistance is rendering our current antibacterial arsenal useless at a time when almost no new antibiotics are being developed. In his doctoral thesis, Johnston pioneered new techniques to use new big data analytics and computer automation to reveal these new antibiotics, providing tools that are poised to dramatically increase the rate of drug discovery and push back the tide of antibiotic resistance. Dr. Johnston is currently a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Fredrickson received the 2017 Award in Humanities and Fine Arts for his dissertation, The Age of Lead: Metropolitan Change, Environmental Health, and Inner City Underdevelopment.  Using lead hazards as a case study to explore the relationship between metropolitan development, environmental health, and social inequality, Fredrickson shows how suburbanites and suburban development benefited from lead-related technologies not shared by those in the inner city, and the costs of lead pollution from these technologies were imposed disproportionately on inner-city residents. Fredrickson examines how one element, lead, linked the environment, metropolitan expansion, the state, and capitalism over the course of a century, providing a window into the tradeoffs that shaped the lives of millions.

More information about the CGS / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award is available at www.proquest.com/go/scholars or at www.cgsnet.org.

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The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center this week released new data on the numbers of graduate and professional degree earners who first began their postsecondary studies at a community college. Roughly one in five master's degree earners, 11 percent who earned doctoral degrees and 13 percent of professional degree earners originally began at a two-year college, found the center, which tracks the progress of almost all U.S. college students.

Enrollment in graduate school is up, continuing a trend in first-time graduate students researchers have seen for five years. But growth rates are starting to dip, according to numbers from a new report the Council of Graduate Schools co-published with the Graduate Record Examinations Board.

Survey results released Thursday offer a first look at yield rates of prospective international students -- that is, the percentage who accept an offer of admission for the fall -- and suggest that universities may see different patterns depending on where in the U.S. they’re located.

One report on international-student trends concludes that American colleges have been "hard hit" by declining interest from the Middle East, while another expresses "cautious optimism" that the number of overseas students accepting offers of admission to American institutions could be above projections. A third shares the concerns of graduate-school deans, half of whom say they are seeing "substantial" falloffs in foreign enrollments.

After President Trump announced a temporary travel ban in January, academic leaders were swift to condemn it, and to warn that it would shut out some of the world’s most talented scholars. But a national study of admissions officers found that, at least as of May, international students remain interested in studying in the United States, with overall demand holding steady compared to previous years.

Some data suggest that the number of international students applying or being admitted to American higher education institutions is down significantly from a year ago.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the U.S. workforce will continue to experience a need for workers trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the future. Continuously advancing technology requires that employees learn new skills. While some jobs will require training that can be achieved in secondary, vocational and undergraduate schools, others will require expertise in research and innovation beyond the bachelor’s degree. Fortunately, this trend in employment opportunities overlaps with another trend: recent statistics show that many students who receive graduate degrees in STEM have an interest in careers outside of the academy.

While I’ve witnessed myriad innovations in the financial services industry throughout my career, there is one area where banking has been slower to evolve: investing in women. Up until the last few decades, the financial world imposed nearly impenetrable barriers that prevented women from reaching the highest levels of an organization. This was the case both in terms of hiring women and offering products. But these days, equality has become a widely touted priority for businesses and positive gains have been occurring within the industry and the regulatory community. In 2014, Janet Yellen became the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve, for instance. While not banking specific, the number of women on the boards of Fortune 500 companies has grown to 20%, up from 15.7% in 2010.