Eligibility & Submission Procedures

Eligibility

PhD students who have passed their qualifying exams (both written and oral), who have submitted at least one publication to a peer-reviewed journal related to their PhD research, and who is currently registered as a student in the Department are eligible.

Application Procedure

The student should submit items 1-4 in a single pdf file to Cathy Bradley:

• Cover letter that includes a description of any service activities related to the Department or the larger informatics community, any other information (e.g., major presentations, recognitions, or awards) that is not reflected in the materials
• Transcripts (unofficial versions are suitable).
• NIH Biosketch; in the Personal Statement Section list service to the Department and/or the broader Informatics community (e.g., TA roles, SAC member, student editor, AMIA volunteer, ).
• A copy of the one manuscript (already submitted to a peer-reviewed journal) that you consider your best List any additional manuscripts/publications since starting the program in the Biosketch. Do not submit a manuscript previously submitted for the John D. Morgan competition or that has won any other competition.

The student’s committee chair should submit:

• Letter (as a pdf or in an email) of recommendation describing the merits of the candidate, incorporating any additional input from other committee members as This should be emailed directly to Cathy Bradley by the committee chair.

Judging Procedure

1. 1. A panel of faculty members will be selected to independently review and judge each
   2. The committee members will make the award based on the materials submitted
   3. The following attributes will be evaluated by the judges:
      • Student’s courses and
      • Recommendation by the student’s PhD committee.
      • Student’s service to the Department, including being a student representative on a committee, a TA, and any other technical or leadership support activities.
      • Student’s service to the larger informatics community, local or national (e.g., serving as a student rep for an AMIA or JAMIA committee)
      • The quality of the publication(s) authored by the student, with emphasis on the publication(s) where the student is the first author. Typical manuscripts attributes considered are:
        • Originality and innovativeness of content
        • Organization and clarity of presentation
        • Contribution to biomedical informatics
        • Formulation of problem and/or hypothesis
        • Discussion of methods and results
        • Analysis of relevant prior work
        • Level of effort and technical difficulty of the (Consider effort/skills needed to collect data (original vs. existing data), develop an application, or perform statistical analyses.)
      • Overall contribution to or impact on the field of medical informatics (including presentations during student years, collaboration with colleagues, new ideas/methods developed). 

   For more information, please contact Cathy Bradley.