AWWA Academic Achievement Award
Offered by American Water Works Association
About this scholarship
The AWWA Academic Achievement Award recognizes outstanding master’s theses and doctoral dissertations that contribute to the public water supply field. The American Water Works Association makes four one-time awards: $3,000 for first place and $1,500 for second place in the master’s thesis category, plus the same amounts in the doctoral dissertation category. Eligible work may address drinking-water treatment, source-water protection, distribution, utility operations, water quality, public health, conservation, policy, engineering, or another topic with a clear connection to the water supply industry. The manuscript must be the work of a single author and must be entered during the same competition year in which it was submitted for the degree. The online entry form asks for the author’s contact information, institution, degree, major, thesis or dissertation title, and supervising professor. Entrants upload one PDF containing the thesis or dissertation, a letter of endorsement from the instructor or major professor who supervised the research, and a one-page abstract explaining the work’s significance to the water supply industry. Because the program judges completed graduate research rather than future study, applicants should make the abstract’s practical contribution and relevance explicit. The official AWWA form accepts the complete submission directly and lists January 10 as the deadline; for the next competition, that date is January 10, 2027.
Eligibility
- Have completed a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation relevant to public water supply
- Be the sole author of the submitted thesis or dissertation
- Enter the manuscript during the competition year in which it was submitted for the degree
- Upload a PDF of the complete thesis or dissertation
- Provide an endorsement letter from the instructor or major professor who supervised the research
- Provide a one-page abstract explaining the work’s significance to the water supply industry
- Complete the official AWWA author, institution, degree, and research fields
- Submit all materials through the online entry form by January 10, 2027