Five Grads Receive Honors at Commencement 2018
Gotz award recipient Olena Bogdan poses for a photograph with members of the Gotz family
Photo by Diane Baldwin/RAND Corporation
Five new alumni received honors at Commencement 2018: one from his fellow grads, four from Pardee RAND faculty. Tim Smith (cohort '13) applied to give the graduate address and was selected to do so by his fellow Ph.D. graduates.
In his speech, Smith said: "As we extend our reach beyond these walls, the challenge is only beginning. The world we live in is changing before our eyes, becoming increasingly interconnected and polarized. In the process, it is creating a whole host of particularly prickly policy issues. Our time at RAND has armed us with the skillset to contribute to these challenges in a meaningful way, and this is both a great gift and great responsibility."
His prepared remarks are available online to see his full set of stories about the dissertation process, our compass heading, and critical thinking!
Dissertation and Academic Honors
Additionally, faculty selected four of our 31 new Ph.D. grads to receive recognition for excellence during their Pardee RAND careers, based on various criteria.
Huth Award
Lauren Kendrick (cohort '12)
Ammonia Emissions from Industrial Hog Farming: Efficacy of Voluntary Reduction Strategies as an Alternative to Regulation (public link forthcoming)
The Gaylord K. Huth Memorial Award is presented to the graduate with the most outstanding dissertation related to technology and public policy. Gaylord Huth was a senior member of the RAND Engineering staff from 1990 to 1997. During this time, he distinguished himself as a researcher and leader in the fields of telecommunications and information systems and by his interest in forging closer ties between RAND and the academic community.
Sherwood Award
Bonnie Triezenberg ('14)
The Richard A. Sherwood Memorial Award is presented to the graduate with the most outstanding dissertation in the field of foreign affairs. Dick Sherwood, a senior partner for many years at the Los Angeles law firm O’Melveny & Myers, was himself an active participant in foreign affairs. He chaired the RAND-UCLA Center for Soviet Studies and was a director of the America Japan Cultural Center in Los Angeles and a Trustee of the Asia Society. Sherwood was a great civic leader in Los Angeles, a champion of knowledge, culture and the arts and he continues to be deeply missed.
Gotz Award
Olena Bogdan ('12)
Regional Economic Growth and International Capital Flows: The Case of Ukraine
The Glenn A. Gotz Award in Economic Analysis is given for outstanding work in economics, both in the graduate's coursework and in their dissertation. Gotz was an economist at RAND from 1973 until 1998, focusing on military manpower and logistics issues. From 1985 until 1990, he directed the Defense Manpower Research Center in the RAND National Defense Research Institute, and from 1990 until he left, he directed the Graduate Student Summer Intern Program. He died in 2006.
Goldhamer Award
Zhimin Mao ('11)
The Herbert Goldhamer Memorial Award recognizes one or more outstanding Pardee RAND graduates who, as prospective advisers, are proficient in the techniques of policy analysis and, in addition, approach general problems through particular situations; respect the individuality of events and do not attempt to fit them to some favored technique or analytical scheme; avoid jargon and, where feasible, the use of technical terms; show a sensitivity to the nuances of human experience; and seek to enrich the understanding of the present through an appreciation of the past.