Virginia Tech alumnus wins thesis award from Conference of Southern Graduate Schools

5 Mar 2015

Mohammad Saied, Virginia Tech doctoral and master's degree alumnus, won a master's thesis award — Mohammad Saied Dehghani Sanij

Virginia Tech alumnus Mohammad Saied Dehghani Sanij has earned the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools’ 2015 master’s thesis award.

Sanij, who earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering and a doctoral degree in civil engineering, was hailed by Tom Reynolds, dean of the University of North Carolina Graduate School for an “outstanding” thesis in the math, physical sciences, and engineering fields. The honor includes a $1,000 award.

Sanij’s prize-winning thesis was, “Optimal Resource Allocation Strategies to Protect Network-structured Systems.”

Sanij won the William Preston Society Master’s Thesis Award in 2013-14 in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and was honored during Graduate Education Week and at spring commencement. The Graduate School then nominated Sanij’s thesis for the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools award.

“We take the dissertation and thesis nominations and awards seriously,” said Muhammad Hajj, professor of engineering science and mechanics and Graduate School associate dean. “We move them to the next level.”

Sanij currently is a post-graduate researcher in Virginia Tech's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering. He will receive his award at a meeting in New Orleans this month.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.