DATE: March 4, 2008

Elizabeth C. Chuk, a University of Washington Michael G. Foster School of Business accounting PhD candidate, was recently awarded a $25,000 fellowship grant from the Deloitte Foundation. Chuk is one of 10 recipients of the non-profit organization's Doctoral Fellowship Program, which awarded a total of $250,000 in 2008.

Each fellow will receive $5,000 during his or her last year of studies and $20,000 upon completion of a dissertation.

The fellowships " …provide significant financial support during the dissertation phase, when PhD students may be in the greatest financial need; awards such as these can make the difference between staying in a PhD program or dropping out," said Shaun Budnik, president of the Deloitte Foundation.

Other students who won came from the University of Arizona, University of Texas – Austin, University of Southern California, University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Michigan and Columbia University.

Applications from over 100 American universities were requested for the fellowships, with outstanding doctoral students being nominated by their university's accounting faculty. The ten recipients were selected this year by a committee comprised of three eminent accounting professors: Mark DeFond from University of Southern California, Michelle Hanlon from University of Michigan and Jane Kennedy from University of Washington.

The Deloitte Foundation is the non-profit arm of Deloitte LLP and funds several higher education initiatives, including the Doctoral Fellowship Program.