To honor exceptional and original contributions by early-stage researchers, the Association for Tree-Ring Research (ATR) annually awards prizes for the best Ph.D. and Master’s theses within the field of tree-ring research as defined by the Association’s remit.
For the upcoming Ph.D. thesis award, professional ATR members —including supervisors, co-supervisors, examiners, and collaborators familiar with the thesis content— are encouraged to nominate outstanding Ph.D. theses. Eligible nominees must be ATR members, have successfully defended their thesis within the 2026 calendar year, and have been a member at least during the year of thesis submission.
For the Master’s award, supervisors who are ATR members may nominate candidates. Given the early-stage nature of Master’s research, nominees do not need to be members of the Association.
Nominations are submitted using the ATR Nomination Form. The deadline for receipt of theses is February, 15 2027. Thesis can be submitted electronically or as hard copy. Theses may be either in the format of a monograph or bound published papers with an accompanying summary in English.
The ATR thesis awards aims to recognise the very best Masters and Ph.D. theses in tree-ring research. For this reason and to ensure a fair review process, supervisors may nominate only ONE thesis for each award category (i.e. the best M.Sc. and the best Ph.D.). When nominating a thesis for a prize, the supervisor should also provide with their application a short (<750 characters) statement as to why the thesis is novel and a potential prize winner. This statement is retained by the ATR board and not forwarded to the individual reviewers.
Theses will be judged for their excellence by members of the ATR Advisory Board (or nominated external reviewers) who will make a recommendation to the Management Board. Theses will be judged upon their quality, originality, potential contribution to the discipline, scientific rigour and presentation.
The highest ranked thesis will be awarded the ATR prize €1,000 for Ph.D. and €500 for Masters (including “Doctorant” or National equivalent). The winner will be announced at the TRACE Annual Meeting and communicated to members online. The decision of the Board is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Given the prestige and financial value of the award, the Board and reviewers reserve the right to not recommend a thesis for an award in any one year.
Since 2022, the Masters and Ph.D. thesis awards are named after our sponsors Ecomatik and Haglöf, respectively.
Former awardees are listed below.
Ph.D. thesis award
| 2024 | Sugam Aryal |
| Andrei Popa | |
| 2023 | Martin Häusser |
| Laura Boeschoten | |
| 2022 | -not appointed- |
| 2021 | -not appointed- |
| 2020 | Linar Akhmetzyanov* |
| Jessie Pearl | |
| 2019 | Jernej Jevšenak |
| 2011 | Bettina Wagner |
| 2010 | Britta Eilmann |
| 2008 | Niels Bleicher |
| 2007 | Matthias Schaub |
| 2006 | David Frank |
* winner of the ‘Fritz H. Schweingruber Award’
Master thesis award
| 2024 | Lise Meir |
| 2023 | -not appointed- |
| 2022 | Grit Neubauer |
| 2022 | Emeka Vitalis Nwonu |
| 2021 | Julie Edwards |
| 2020 | Duncan Mifsud |
| 2019 | Corinna Herrmann |
| 2011 | Cathrin Meinardus |
| 2010 | Karina Hennig |