James Madison College Professor Bryan Ritchie was awarded the Distinguished Dissertation Award by the Council of Graduate Schools.

Ritchie's dissertation, titled "The Political Economy of Technical Intellectual Capital Formation in Southeast Asia," focused on the importance of integrating technology into the political economies of countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Ritchie wrote his dissertation while he was a graduate student at Emory University in Atlanta.

The council gave Ritchie the award in the social science category. The peer-reviewed award is given to graduate students in the country with dissertations that make an unusually significant contribution to the discipline.

The dissertation took Ritchie more than two years to complete, at least a year of which he spent in Southeast Asia conducting research.

"It was a great honor," said Ritchie, who was flown to Washington to receive the award. "Frankly, I had a tremendous experience at Emory that I think justifies the quality of the program."

Ritchie received his doctorate in political science in 2001 from Emory and is the first graduate student from the school to receive this award.