Based on their excellence in doctoral research, three University of Iowa graduate students have earned top honors for the best dissertation in their fields at the UI in 2014.

The Graduate College honors Aaron Buss and David Gaebler with the D.C. Spriesterbach Dissertation Prize and Laura Whitmore with the Rex Montgomery Dissertation Prize.

Buss, who earned his Ph.D. in psychology in 2013, won the Spriestersbach Prize in social sciences. Gaebler, who received his doctorate in mathematics in 2013, won the Spriestersbach Prize in mathematics/physical sciences/engineering.

Whitmore, who earned her Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2014, received the Montgomery Prize, which is awarded annually in the biomedical and health sciences disciplines.

The students were nominated by members of their dissertation committees and will be honored during a ceremony at the James F. Jakobsen Graduate Conference on March 28, 2015.

Award-winning dissertations

Buss’ dissertation, “Closing the development loop on the neurocognitive dynamics of task switching,” addresses issues about the nature of executive function and how it changes over development.

Executive function is a set of mental processes that helps connect past experience with present action.

“Addressing this topic required bringing together a host of interdisciplinary tools—computational modeling, innovative empirical methods, and two neuroimaging modalities (fMRI and fNIRS),” says John Spencer, professor of psychology and Buss’ dissertation advisor. “Aaron’s dissertation research is a cut above any other dissertation I have seen. Aaron is creating a unique research trajectory.”

Buss is assistant professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee.

Gaebler’s dissertation, “Unital Dilations of Completely Positive Semigroups,” deals with the mathematical problem of how to embed an energy-dissipating system into one where energy is conserved.

Gaebler’s research has the potential for practical application in analyzing theories about how our universe works. Questions explored through quantum mechanics lie in the intersections of mathematics and physics that Gaebler studies.

“In every respect Dave’s dissertation is an outstanding and very original piece of scholarship,” says Paul Muhly, professor of mathematics and statistics and actuarial science and Gaebler’s dissertation advisor. “The craftsmanship is stunning, the exposition is delightful, and the discoveries in it are profound. Dave’s thesis is arguably the most well-written dissertation in mathematics that I have seen in my 45-year career at the University of Iowa.”

Gaebler is assistant professor of mathematics at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich.

Whitmore’s dissertation, “The roles of neutrophil NADPH oxidase in resolving systemic inflammation,” demonstrates that the neutrophil NADPH oxidase 2 is critical for limiting systemic inflammation and necessary to resolve chronic inflammation.

Systemic inflammation is a serious condition present in more than 50 percent of intensive care unit patients and can lead to death. Following an inflammatory stimulus, infection-fighting white blood cells (neutrophils and monocytes) rapidly migrate toward the site of inflammation where they release molecular mediators, including reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by the NADPH oxidase 2 (Nox2) enzyme complex.

It is well established that Nox2-dervied ROS are necessary for eliminating certain pathogens and that excessive ROS can cause host tissue injury. However, Whitmore’s research shows that Nox2-derived ROS also have an anti-inflammatory function.

“Dr. Whitmore has intense scientific curiosity and very appropriate excitement about her results. She is always asking the next question,” says Jessica Moreland, professor of pediatrics and microbiology at UI Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and Whitmore’s dissertation advisor while a professor at the University of Iowa.

Whitmore is a postdoctoral research scholar in internal medicine at the UI.

Namesakes of dissertation prizes

The Spriestersbach Prize is named for Duane C. Spriestersbach, who served as Graduate College dean from 1965 to 1989. When the prize were founded over 30 years ago, Spriestersbach hoped it would “serve as tangible evidence—as ‘gold standards’—of the outstanding work of which graduate students are capable and to which all others should aspire.”

As winners of the Spriestersbach Prize, Buss and Gaebler are the UI’s nominees for the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/University Microfilms International (UMI) Distinguished Dissertation Award. This national award is the most prestigious dissertation prize in the country. Iowa has had five national winners, more than any other public institution.

The Montgomery Prize is named for Rex Montgomery, an emeritus professor of biochemistry in the Carver College of Medicine (CCOM). Montgomery began at the UI as an assistant professor in 1955 and became a full professor in 1963. He was associate dean for academic affairs in the Carver College of Medicine for 1974 to 1995, while also serving as associate dean of research in the CCOM and interim vice president of research.