Dear Colleagues:
In 1984, Dr. Kenneth Thimann and his wife, Ann, established a scholarship fund “…to be awarded at the end of the academic year to a graduating UC Santa Cruz senior who has been accepted to a graduate school and shows the most promise as a future scientist in one of the disciplines of biology, chemistry, earth sciences, and physics.” A further request was that the award committee consisting of the Dean of Physical and Biological Sciences, the Department Chairs of Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Physics, plus the serving Provost of Crown College, or their designee. Dr. Thimann asked that “the committee consider not only the achievement of the nominated individual in his or her discipline, but also consider the candidates demonstrated breadth of interest in subjects outside of his or her discipline.” Furthermore, he added “It shall also be within the purview of the award committee to determine if there are equal qualified candidates in a given year and thus announce the awarding of more than one scholarship. Finally, the committee may determine that there are no qualified candidates in a given year and thus make no award, with the funds again being retained by the Foundation for future increase in the award.”
The dollar amount on each award will depend on the quality and the number of nomination packets we receive. We have $10,000 to award this year. Those seniors graduating with honors would be likely candidates. Please forward your nominations to the PB Sci Analyst (PBSAnalyst@ucsc.edu) at the Physical and Biological Dean’s Office by Monday, April 20, 2020.
Each nomination packet should include:
- Student’s name and address;
- A brief biographical sketch, which includes future career goals/plans that specify the school and graduate program of choice;
- A statement of support from the sponsoring faculty member, or Department Chair, which includes a brief summary of the student’s career at UCSC Academic records and any other information that provides convincing evidence of the academic excellence of the nominee.
Electronic Nomination packets will be made available to committee members with a ranking sheet by Friday, April 24th, 2020.
Once the nominations have been received, they will be loaded on to a share drive for the provost, dean, and chairs to review. Look for a notification from my office when the files are ready for your review. A ranking chart will be provided so that comments, and recommendations can be collected and used for ranking purposes. I will consider all of the rankings and recommendations to make a final selection.
Sincerely,
Paul L Koch
Dean, Division of Physical & Biological Sciences
Professor, Earth & Planetary Sciences