The UH Graduate School has an Ombudsperson for Graduate and Professional Students. The Ombudsperson provides a safe setting for graduate and professional students to confidentially raise and discuss their concerns about workplace and academic issues, address interpersonal difficulties, and receive assistance in identifying options for resolving the conflicts and concerns.

What an Ombudsperson Does

• Provides a confidential forum for raising issues and expressing concerns.
• Listens without judgement and offers impartial feedback.
• Assists the graduate/professional student in exploring options to address concerns.
• Identifies and refers the graduate/professional student to resources for addressing problems and concerns.
• Clarifies policies and procedures that apply to the graduate/professional student’s problem or issue.
• Provides coaching on effective communication for difficult conversations.
• Analyzes and reports trends in complaints and concerns, and provides recommendations for institutional improvements.
• Promotes highest standards of university governance and a supportive, ethical and healthy organizational culture.

UH Ombudsperson - Funda Suhin, Ph.D.
Dr. Suhin is an associate professor of supply chain management. Her teaching and research interests are in operations and supply chain management. She is passionate about the UH community and student well-being. Over her career, she has worked with graduate students in a wide variety of roles, including teaching graduate courses, directing graduate student research, and coordinating a doctoral program in Bauer College of Business. She has served on numerous committees related to graduate student education and policies, and as a graduate student mentor.

Learn More about the Office of Ombuds Services

Contact the Ombudsperson: gradombuds@uh.edu

Graduating with your Ph.D. in Summer 2024? The Dan E. Wells Outstanding Dissertation Award recognizes a graduating NSM doctoral student who has performed outstanding research and submitted the best dissertation to the College in terms of scholarship, presentation, and organization. The recipient will receive an award of $1,000 and will be recognized at the Fall 2024 Commencement ceremony.

Applying to the Dan E. Wells Outstanding Dissertation Award is done at the same time you submit your committee-approved dissertation to the College. The committee-approved dissertation is the dissertation which includes the corrections required by your committee and committee chair after your defense, but before it is reviewed by the College reader. See full application procedures here.

Two awards are made each year; the Fall award is made to a student who graduated in the previous summer or is graduating in the fall semester; the Spring award is made to a student graduating in the spring semester.

Deadline for Summer Graduates to Apply for Dissertation Award: Tue, July 23, Noon (12 pm)

UH is a member of the Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC), one of the largest inter-institutional cooperatives in the world. Are you interested in a postdoc or research position at a GCC member institution? Open positions can be found on the GCC Job Board.

This service, sponsored by the GCC and its member institutions, provides opportunities for job seekers from GCC member institutions and employers to learn more about each other. The GCC’s mission is to build interdisciplinary collaborative research teams and training programs in the biological sciences that intersect the computational, chemical, mathematical, and physical sciences.

Graduating Ph.D. students and postdocs from GCC institutions can post their resumes and search for jobs at GCC institutions. To place a resume on the Job Board, register as a Job Seeker and enter the requested information.

For students engaged in graduate education and research in energy topics, there is a $12,000 award opportunity that you can apply for sponsored by Chevron.

The UH Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows Awards will fund 8 fellows with a one-year $12,000 graduate fellowship in addition to any other remuneration students might be receiving. Students must have a minimum of 12 months before completion of their degree program, with preference for students who have longer horizons before completion of their degree program. Students enrolled for less than six months in their graduate program (as of May 31, 2024) are not eligible to apply.

Application Details and Form (PDF)

Application Deadline: Fri, June 28, at 5 pm Central

The W. L. Calvert Memorial Scholarship provides scholarships for students who are actively seeking a master’s degree or Ph.D. in geoscience. The scholarship is under the Houston Geological Society umbrella. The scholarship fund is directed “to assist worthy and needy geological students to pursue graduate studies in some branch of Economic Geology leading to a master’s or doctoral degree.”

UH EAS alumna Judy Schulenberg is on the Calvert Scholarship Committee and has informed NSM that the deadline listed on the scholarship webpage has been extended to July 1.

Eligibility

• A recipient may pursue studies at any accredited college or university in the U.S. that awards graduate degrees in the Earth Sciences.
• Scholarship applicants must present evidence of their unconditional acceptance for graduate study at the school of their choice.
• Recipients are expected to carry at least 9 credit hours each semester or quarter, summer terms excepted.
• Second- and third-year renewals may be granted provided the scholar demonstrates satisfactory progress toward their degree.

More Information

Application Deadline: Mon, July 1 (extended from June 15)

Application Form
NOTE on Submitting Application: Judy Schulenburg has informed NSM that instead of mailing applications they can be emailed to the following persons: Judy Schulenberg, jschulenberg@comcast.net, Houston Geological Society, office@hgs.org, and Andrea Peoples (HGS Office Manager), andrea@hgs.org.

Interested in conducting a research project or teaching English abroad for a year? Consider applying to the Fulbright US Student Program!

Fill out the interest form to schedule an appointment to learn more.

For specific questions about the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, please contact the UH Fulbright Program Advisor Dr. Ben Rayder (btrayder@central.uh.edu).