Doctoral Thesis Award for Excellence

The Award for Excellence given by Doctoral Programme Committee of the Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering.

All our doctoral theses must be positively evaluated by independent and unbiased academic experts in the field of research before the theses are granted the right to be published and defended in public. Each of the experts involved submits a written statement detailing the merits together with any deficiencies in each thesis along with a grading table. Based on the documents submitted by the pre-examiners and opponent, our Doctoral Programme Committee decides on the awardees.

To be eligible for consideration for the award, the doctoral thesis must:

(i) have received one or more marks in the “top 20% / excellent” category from each preliminary examiner, based on the written pre-examination statement and grading table submitted
(ii) have earned one or more marks in the “top 20% / excellent” category from opponent(s) at the doctoral defence based on their written assessment of the public defence and the thesis.

Hence, each thesis is chosen for its scientific excellence, impact on research and the awardee’s ability to orally defend their research work in a public arena. The awardee receives a separate Award for Excellence certificate signed by the chair of the Doctoral Programme Committee.