Eric S. Lob (Ph.D. 2013) has won the 2013–14 Best Ph.D. Dissertation of the Year on a Topic of Iranian Studies Award of the Foundation for Iranian Studies. Lob’s dissertation, “An Institutional History of the Iranian Construction Jihad: From Inception to Institutionalization (1979-2011),” was supervised by Mirjam Künkler and is the first organizational history of the rural development organization Jehad-e Sazandegi.

According to the Selection Committee, Lob has made an "exceptional contribution to the field of Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies” by, among other achievements, “stating clearly the study’s problematic… constructing an adequate and efficient theoretical framework… developing and using successfully a rigorous methodology to bring together a significant array of primary and secondary sources, including critical information secured through interviews judiciously conducted in the field in Iran and abroad, to support an innovative approach to the empirical study of post-revolutionary politics in general and politics of the Islamic Republic in particular, using the evolutionary history of the Iranian Construction Jihad (Jihad-e Sazandegi) as a case… methodically connecting data, text, and speech to achieve a credible framework for studying the ways and means states may employ to achieve and maintain control over otherwise chaotic and uncertain post-revolutionary conditions… successfully tracing the political and administrative outlines for, and establishing the importance of, routinizing revolutionary rigor into efficient institutions in support of state domestic and foreign policy…excellent organization of the work.”

This is the second dissertation award that Lob has earned, the first being an Honorable Mention in the Mehrdad Mashayekhi Dissertation Award competition of the International Society for Iranian Studies.