Dr. Ahmet Bulent Ozturk, who received a Ph.D. in  Human Environmental Sciences with a specialization in Hospitality Administration in December, has been selected to receive the 2011 Graduate Research Excellence for the Social Sciences  at Oklahoma State University’s spring commencement ceremony on Friday, May 6 in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

The OSU Graduate College honors students with the Graduate Research Excellence award to recognize outstanding research accomplishments reflected in the thesis or dissertation. Public recognition of the research conducted by the institution’s most talented graduate students is an explicit way to reward excellence and to contribute to the creation of an environment conducive to successful research. Graduate students who have defended their theses or dissertations in the past year and  have graduated or will graduate in the spring  are eligible for the award.

During his education at OSU, Ozturk has published five refereed publications and presented ten conference papers at prestigious international and national conferences.  He currently has one manuscript accepted for The Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology and two manuscripts in progress. In addition, Ozturk received the Best Paper Award at the 15th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism.