UW engineering PhD student who died last year will get rare posthumous degree

When he died last October at age 30, Craig Schuff, a quadriplegic, was just a few neutrons short of completing his doctorate in electrical engineering at UW-Madison. He had already earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, already passed a qualifying examination and prelims, and had already begun preparing to defend his thesis. He had interrupted his graduate studies in the College of Engineering once before, in 2011, when a Lake Monona diving accident damaged his spinal cord and left him motionless, but no less motivated. Now, in death, Schuff rejoins the elite: In May at UW-Madison graduation ceremonies, his parents will accept for him a posthumous doctorate in electrical engineering.