The Distinguished Master's Thesis Award

Each degree granting program of the IU Graduate School Indianapolis nominates one truly outstanding Master’s thesis for consideration by a committee of faculty reviewers for the Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award. Awards are provided to students at $1,500 each, with one recipient per category*.

*2027 categories are: 1) Social Sciences, 2) Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering

2023 Award Recipients

Madeline Hellmich and Kayleigh Jennings were recently recognized with the 2023 award for IU Indianapolis. Hellmich won in the humanities category (School of Liberal Arts, Public History) and Jennings (School of Medicine, Medical and Molecular Genetics) won in the Biological/Life Sciences category (School of Science, clinical psychology).

Madeline Hellmich

Years of research and study led Hellmich, a public history master’s student, to her thesis, “Systemic Anti-Black Violence in Indiana: A Digital Public History Wikipedia Project.” In a nomination letter by Rebecca Shrum, Ph.D., director of public history, Shrum indicated Hellmich’s project has “the potential to make a difference in our country’s ongoing struggle for racial justice.”

Shrum continued with, “The significance of truth and reconciliation movements around the globe motivated Ms. Hellmich’s works as she uncovered the centuries of white silence surrounding the atrocities committed against Black citizens in Indiana.”

Hellmich, originally from Greensburg, Indiana, states, “I knew the racism and racist violence that Hoosiers were experiencing and combatting in the present was connected to Indiana’s racist past, including the racist violence and lynchings that took place in sundown towns like the one I grew up in.”

Hellmich started graduate school in the fall of 2020 and was inspired by the racial justice movement that emerged in the U.S. in the summer of 2020. With that in mind, her advice to graduate students is: “If there is a current issue that you feel passionate about and you want to help respond to it, listen to community members, civic leaders, and faculty and staff who are already working on solutions. Then, see if there is a way you can work together.”

Beyond the important findings of her research, Hellmich took her thesis one step further. With a desire to share her research broadly, she turned to Wikipedia, acknowledging in a blog entitled, Practicing public history on Wikipedia “historians have a long and complicated relationship with it.” Though not an easy endeavor, Hellmich wrote in her blog, that the space allowed her and other professional historians the opportunity to “interact, debate, evaluate, and change the historical record in real time.”

Kayleigh Jennings

Jenning’s research for her thesis, “FGF23 Control of HOX Expression and Function and Implications for CKD,” is designed to improve outcomes for people with chronic kidney disease, which affects about 10% of the population worldwide.

Kenneth White, PhD., professor in the department of medical and molecular genetics of the IU School of Medicine, explains in his nomination letter, the significance of FGF23: “FGF23 is a hormone secreted from bone that controls metabolic phosphate and vitamin D synthesis in the mammalian kidney. FGF23 dysregulation can lead to sever metabolic disorders, and its overexpression is a common characteristic of CKD.”

Erica Clinkenbeard, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of medical and molecular genetics, explained in her nomination letter: “Kayleigh’s studies focused on FGF23-mediated gene and chromatin accessibility changes, specifically investigating the genes elucidated from the single cell datasets. An ultimate goal of these studies is to identify new targets for the control of phosphate metabolism that may be beneficial for patients with CKD.”

Clinkenbeard states, from early interactions with Jennings, “Kayleigh exuded an enthusiasm for research and was highly engaged in lab meetings… she was inquisitive, absorbing the information allowing her to quickly acquire the background knowledge of the lab.”

Jennings offers the following advice to students: “Join a lab as an undergraduate researcher in your chosen field, if possible. I found working in a lab allowed for better hands-on application of classroom lessons and it has greatly improved my education.”

Jennings is a central Indiana native and works as a research assistant in Dr. White’s lab.

Congratulations to our 2023 Distinguished Master's Award Winners!

Previous Award Winners

2022 Award Recipients
Sheetal Prasanna and Danielle Abel were recently recognized with the 2022 award for IU Indianapolis. Prasanna won in the mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering category (School of Engineering, electric and computer engineering) and Abel won in the Social Sciences category (School of Science, clinical psychology).

Prasanna’s thesis, “Sensor Fusion in Neural Networks for Object Detection,” focuses on machine learning for object detection using automotive images, radar and lidar data.

According to one of Prasanna’s reviewers, Maher Rizkalla, Ph.D., “Her contribution to novel approaches, leading to compensating for the lack of data from camera and radar fusion network is significant…Her presentation was among the best I have seen. Her contribution has been pending the publication in a high impact factor journal.”

Rizkalla also wrote, “[Prasanna] achieved a perfect cumulative GPA, and was among the Top 100 Award and Elite 50. She [also] received a number of awards, including Chancellors’ Scholarship, University Fellowship, and Tau Beta Pi Scholarship.”

Mohammed El-Sharkawy, Ph.D., Prasanna’s major research advisor for her master’s Thesis wrote, “By assisting the team to develop an android application to alert drivers of traffic slowdowns, Sheetal proved herself to be a skilled engineer as well as a team player.”

After interning for three summers with Aptiv, a global automotive company that aims to develop safer, greener, and more connected solutions for mobility, Prassana was hired as a full-time engineer by Aptiv after her graduation in May 2022.

Danielle Abel

One of Abel’s reviewers, Michelle Salyer, Ph.D., described Abel’s thesis, “Investigation of Social Dysfunction and Affect in Schizophrenia,” as truly outstanding. “Danielle sought to answer two important research questions regarding the nature of social functioning in people with schizophrenia…The study was well-designed and innovative. Danielle used a multimethod assessment of social behavior to produce high quality data.”

In describing the construction of Abel’s study, Salyer added, “She begins with a broad overview to engage the reader to understand the big picture of what the study is addressing and why we should care. This is followed by a detailed and directed literature review to lead the reader to the study design and how she is addressing clear gaps in the literature.”

Abel’s primary research mentor since she joined the IUI clinical psychology doctoral program in 2018, Kyle Minor, Ph.D., wrote, “During her time at IU Indianapolis, Danielle has excelled: she has demonstrated impressive conceptual skills and ranks at the very top of doctoral students who have come through our program – a particularly high bar given the excellent credentials of this comparison group.” Minor continues with, “Danielle’s dissertation is an innovative real-world study that explores how different aspects of social interactions are related to predicted and experienced pleasure of those interactions in schizophrenia.”

Perhaps the basis of awarding Abel this prestigious award is best summed up by Minor’s statement: “At this early stage, Danielle is already laying a solid foundation for a career as an independent scientist.”

2021 Award Recipients
Ivette Muzquiz and Jill Weiss Simins were recognized with the 2021 award for IUPUI (now IU Indianapolis). Muzquiz won in the biological/life sciences category (School of Engineering, Biomedical) and Weiss won in the humanities category (School of Liberal Arts, History).

Ivette Muzquiz

Muzquiz’s thesis, “Reversible Nerve Conduction Block Using Low Frequency Alternating Currents,” focused on the exploration of a phenomenon discovered in Dr. Ken Yoshida’s lab involving nerve conduction block elicited using direct nerve electrical stimulation using a novel stimulation waveform.

As Muzquiz’s thesis advisor, Dr. Yoshida wrote, “Ivette’s research involved the translation of Low Frequency Alternating Current Block to live animals, and determining whether the nerve block was capable of eliciting a measureable change in organ function. In her work, she demonstrated that the waveforms functionally blocked neural signals that slowed heart rate and reduced breathing rate in anaesthetized rats and pigs respectively.”

Dr. Yoshida also wrote, “Extraordinarily, Ivette managed to complete this technically challenging experimental work and MS degree during the time of virtual learning, and campus closures due to the Global Pandemic. Beyond being exceptionally organized in planning her research time and course time, Ivette is exceptionally bright and talented.”

Muzquiz is now an R&D Engineer at Procter & Gamble.

Jill Weiss Simins

According to Weiss Simins’ thesis committee chair, Dr. Nancy Robertson, Weiss Simins’ thesis, “’A Little Deviltry’: Gilded Age Celebrity and William Merritt Chase’s Tenth Street Studio as Advertisement,” blended painstaking research into primary sources, a mastery of the relevant scholarly literature from several disciplines, and an innovative “reading” of Chase’s artwork to analyze his rise to prominence against the backdrop of the literal life-and-death struggles of artists of his day.

Another member of her thesis committee, Dr. Robert Patrick Kinsman, wrote, “The thesis is well-written, easy to read, well-footnoted, and combines a broader range of research than most M.A. theses focused on a singular course topic. It adeptly combines historical discourse, art historical analysis, and a more theoretical discussion of celebrity.”

Weiss Simins is a historian at the Indiana Historical Bureau, a division of the Indiana State Library, where she has worked since 2008. Recently, she was recognized with the Dorothy Riker Historian Award, named for Riker, who was a 50-year employee and editor for the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Historical Bureau from 1929 to 1979. This award is made annually to a historian who has made distinguished contributions to the field of historical scholarship, including presentation, use of materials and preservation.