Creating Acknowledgements For A Doctoral Nuclear Engineering Dissertation

Although acknowledgements aren’t required, it’s become traditional for students to add them at the beginning of their dissertation as a way to give things to any person, group of people, or organization that has made the completion of said dissertations possible. In particularly difficult technical subjects like nuclear engineering where there is a lot of research support from multiple groups, acknowledgments are commonplace. If you find your wondering how to properly write an acknowledgement for your own doctoral nuclear engineering dissertation, you will find the following information more than helpful:

• Determine the appropriate length

Determining the length of your acknowledgement might not seem as important – many students simply write out everybody they feel they should give thanks to and include them in a long paragraph – and the fact is they do vary in length. However, a three line paragraph can just as impactful if not more so than a longer piece which tends to bury some important names. The length really comes down to who you think you are the most grateful towards and who have had the greatest impact on your research. Others involved will not feel under-appreciated if you leave them out, as long as you have been thoughtful with your choices.

• List your academic acknowledgements

Before including any academic acknowledgements you should create a list to ensure you have not forgotten anybody. Then you can go through and select the most appropriate people or groups. Start with the institutions or organizations involved in your research. Perhaps you received special grants or scholarships to conduct your study. Or perhaps you were given access to information that made your study possible. Next, list the names of your advisor as well as any professors that were helpful in either your graduate or college career. There’s no simple and direct way of determining who you should include, but listing them should make the picture clearer.

• List your personal acknowledgements

Next, create a list of the people you’d like to thank in your personal life. This list can include family members, people from your community, friends, or colleagues. Generally, it’s said that you should start with the most important acknowledgements. However, this strategy can make this section seem disorganized as it may move back and forth from the academic to the personal erratically. Our advice is that you start with the academic and move towards the personal. Not only will it leave a nice human touch to the work as a whole, but it will give the start of the dissertation greater impact.