I am shocked that the officer dared to say award for work as student cannot be counted as major prize. Use the following example to counter that *****'s ruthless conclusion.
Brian Josephson discovered Josephson tunnel effect which won him Nobel Prize. He did this work in 1962, when he was a Ph.D. student. At that time he was only 22 years old. He got his Ph.D. in 1964.
http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/306_81.html