The Torrey Botanical Society supports graduate student research through six annual grants: three for Master’s students and three for Doctoral students.
Number of Awards: 6
Amount: $1,000 (2); $1,500 (2); $2,000 (2)
Eligibility: Graduate students studying plant science who are members of the Society
Allowable Expenses: Field work and related expenses
Apply Here
Application Deadline: January 15, 2026
Application Requirements:
Research proposal (maximum 2 pages), plus a separate literature cited page.
Itemized budget with a brief rationale for each expense.
Current C.V. of the applicant.
Letter from the major professor detailing the applicant’s current status and qualifications.
Formatting Guidelines:
Times New Roman, 12-point font
1.5 line-spaced
1-inch margins
For inquiries about the awards or application process, please contact grants@torreybotanical.org.
Previous awardees
2025
PhD level awards:
Kieran Althaus, University of Chicago. “Evolutionary divergence in Mexican White Oaks: A multi-scale analysis of species boundaries across the desert Southwest“
Nora Heaphy, University of Vermont. “Adaptive introgression and demographic structure in a keystone northern forest tree“
Jessica Ray, SUNY ESF. “Local landscape-level threats and site characteristics influence long-term shifts in fen species composition: Management and conservation implications of a rare ecological community”
MS level awards:
Bennett Fate, Oregon State University. “Reforestation challenges in the Pacific Northwest: Effects of short interval reburns on the dynamics of Pseudotsuga menziesii seedling regeneration“
Ashlee Kerber, University of Colorado, Denver. “Genetic and volatile chemical signatures in the Polemonium viscosum complex: a combined approach to species delimitation“
Caroline Witherspoon, SUNY ESF. “Investigating the stand-level environmental factors that limit the distribution of imperiled lichen Usnea in the northeastern United States“
2024
PhD level awards:
Richard Hull, Indiana University. “Identifying changes in the vascular plant flora of the Wabash River Corridor.”
Diana Medellín-Zabala, University of Michigan. “Tracing phylogenetic signal in the chemical composition of plant communities across an elevational gradient in the American tropics.”
Justin Sholten, Cornell University. “An enigmatic catalyst of biodiversity: homoploid hybrid speciation in Arisaema (Araceae).”
MS level awards:
María Fernanda Valencia Escalante, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. “Systematics of the “Sodiroa” group within Guzmania Ruiz & Pav. (Bromeliaceae: Tillandsioideae)“
Rachel Hopkins, SUNY ESF. “Mountain plants on the move: Tracking 60 years of climate-induced changes on Whiteface Mountain, New York State.“
Matthew Yamamoto, Claremont Graduate University. “A Flora of the McGee Creek Watershed, Mono County, California.“
2023
PhD level awards:
Kasey Pham, University of Florida. “What got swapped? Investigating the genomic consequences of hybridization in two species of Eucalyptus.“
Sarah Morris, University of Vermont. “Documenting fern diversity of the Choco biogeographic region for macroevolutionary analyses.”
Amber May Stanley, University of Pittsburgh. “Floral traits and plant-pollinator interactions in a stressful environment: The influence of water availability on floral traits and plant reproductive success“
MS level awards:
Kiley Chernicky, DePaul University. “Shifts in recruitment dynamics of white spruce (Picea glauca) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea) in the southern boreal-temperate ecotone“
Rina Talaba, Northwestern University. “Investigating the differences of Cirsium pitcheri’s floral scent related to weevil (Larinus planus) predation.”
Peri Lee Pipkin, Claremont Graduate University. “Black Holes, White Gold: A Flora of the Silver Peak Range, Esmeralda County, NV.“
2022
PhD level awards:
Melina Keighron, North Carolina State University. “The effects of climate change-induced wild bee pollinator declines on plant fitness”
Sebastian Mortimer, Oregon State University. “Who’s flowering and who’s not? Genetic and operational sex ratio variation of beach strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) across a North American climate gradient”
Brooke Kern, University of Minnesota. “The effect of floral traits in self-pollinating Clarkia xantiana ssp. parviflora on the frequency of hybridization with its outcrossing sister subspecies”
Giovana Figueroa, University of California Berkeley. “Phylogeographic study of Oenocarpus bataua in northwestern Amazonia”
MS level awards:
Mary Conlin, North Carolina State University. “The inconspicuous Ludwigia: Quantitative habitat characterization of critically imperiled Ludwigia ravenii (Onagraceae)’
Megan King, Rutgers University. “Plant trait changes in response to latitudinal and urbanization gradients in urban species of the Mid-Atlantic”
Courtney Matzke, California Botanic Garden. “A vascular floristic study of the Piute Mountains”
Brendan Connolly, Northwestern University. “Not all pollinators are created equal: differences in pollination efficiency between pollinators of a montane perennial (Delphinium nuttallianum)”
2021
Bethany Zumwalde, University of Florida. “Investigating cytogeographical, environmental, morphological and genetic variation of a North American cactus with multiple cytotypes.”
Cheyenne Moore, University of Pittsburgh. “Understanding invasion mechanisms and ecosystem impacts of invasive knotweed.”
Brock Mashburn, Washington University. “Tracing the biogeographical origins of a clade of island-hopping Hibiscus (Malvaceae).”
Emma Vtipilthorpe, North Carolina State University. “Relationships between niche breadth and geographic range size in Liatris.”
Emma Fryer, California Polytechnic State University. “Annual plant community assembly on vertic clay in the San Joaquin Desert.”
2020
Zacky Ezedin, University of Minnesota. “Cataloguing the tree flora of lowland forests in the Ramu Basin, Papua New Guinea.”
Blaire Kleiman, Florida International University. “How weeds affect beneficial and pest insects in mango farms.”
Taryn Mueller, University of Minnesota. “Untangling the influence of time, space, genotype and environment on microbial community assembly of foliar endophytes in Clarkia xantiana.”
Martin Purdy, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont Graduate University. “Flora of Coyote Ridge and Coyote Flat ,Inyo County, California.”
2019
Carmela Buono, SUNY Binghampton. “Historical land-use impact of ant-mediated seed dispersal in northeastern deciduous forests.”
Daniel Turck, University of Idaho. “Modeling previous and future distributions of North American temperate rainforest plant species.”
Guedry “Harpo” Faust, University of Idaho. “A comprehensive study of the vascular flora of the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho with a focus on the contemporary use of floras.”
Susan Dean, Chicago Botanic Garden. “Exploring an evolutionary shift in floral traits in Hawaiian Hibiscus (Malvaceae) through natural history and genetics.”
2018
Bridget Williams, Saint Louis University. “Conservation epigenetics and phenotypic plasticity in the geographically restricted genus, Leavenworthia.”
Michael Peyton, University of Wisconsin. “Long-term effects of non-native pigs on understory diversity and stand structure in Hawaiian montane wet forests.”
Abigail Goszka, Ohio University. “Impact of elevation on seed production and seed morphology of red maple (Acer rubrum).”
Jéssica Viana, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “Fern gametophyte ecology under soil nutrient limitation.”
Katherine Zlonis, University of Minnesota Duluth. “Conservation genomics at the southern range margin of a low arctic species: Primula mistassinica (Primulaceae).”
2017
Katherine E. Eisen, Cornell University. “Are differences in floral phenotypes associated with differences in pollinator visitation? A test of character displacement in Clarkia (Onagraceae).”
Genevieve Grace Alexander, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. “Long-term effects of invasive earthworms on understory plant diversity in sugar maple-basswood forests.”
Anthony Christopher Cullen, Rutgers University. “The great garden escape: the role of pollination and hybridization in invasion for two ornamental viburnums.”
Lydia Marie Cuni, Florida International University. “Drivers of species composition and diversity in pine rockland-hardwood hammock ecosystem transitional gradients.”
2016
Rebecca Stubbs, University of Florida. “Specialized adaptations and restricted niche preferences of cold-adapted saxifrages (Micranthes, Saxifragaceae) provide new insight into the effects of climate change on the Arctic flora.”
Brian Park, Yale University. “The phylogeography and demographic history of the hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides).”
Max Piana, Rutgers University. “Recruitment limitation in urban forest fragments and afforestation sites.”
Stephanie Schmiege, Columbia University. “Physiological responses of tropical conifers to climate-induced drought stress.”
2015
Jennifer Blake-Mahmud, Rutgers University. “Temporal, spatial, and environmental dimensions of variable sex expression in striped maple”
Sandra Hoffberg, University of Georgia. “A rale of two cities: Characterizing the spread of kudzu (Pueraria montana) and wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) in urban areas of their invasive range”
Elizabeth Spriggs, Yale University. “Phylogeny, phylogeography, and trait evolution in the Viburnum dentatum species complex”
Danny Haelewaters, Harvard University. “Evolution and speciation in a fungus-insect system: Hesperomyces (Fungi, Laboulbeniales) and the lady beetles”
2014
Fay-Wei Li, Duke University. “Investigating the origin of a chimeric photoreceptor that is linked to the modern fern diversification.“
Brittany L. Sutherland, University of Virginia. “Cytogeography of the Campanula rotundifolia polyploid complex in North America.”
Julia Dupin, University of Colorado-Boulder. “Biogeography, dispersal and trait evolution in the Datureae clade (Solanaceae).“
2013
Jacob Landis, University of Florida. “Evolution of flower color and its significance in Polemoniaceae.“
Gregory Stull, University of Florida. “Phylogeny, fossil record, and biogeographic history of Icacinaceae: implications for tropical plant biogeography.”
Catherine Rushworth, Duke University. “Insights into the origin and persistence of apomixis in the Boechera holboellii species complex.“
2012
Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. “Testing adaptive radiation in the dry tropics: A phylogenetic approach to biogeography, inflorescence evolution, and hydraulic traits in the genus Varronia (Cordiaceae, Boraginales).“
2011
Carrie Kiel, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. “Unraveling relationships among the morphologically diverse and taxonomically complex New World justicioids (Acanthaceae).”
Emily Sessa, University of Wisconsin. “Phylogeny, reticulate evolution, and recurrent polyploid speciation in North American Dryopteris (Dryopteridaceae).“
2010
Robert Laport, University of Rochester. “Polyploidy and reproductive isolation in the North American Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata, Zygophyllaceae).“
Vinson Doyle, CUNY Graduate Center. “Population studies of a cranberry pathogen, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Ascomycota, Sordariomycetes), in North America.”
Mary Heskel, Columbia University. “Response of plant respiration physiology to climate change in the Arctic.“
2009
Posy Busby, Stanford University. “Assessing broad-scale patterns in susceptibility to beech bark disease.“
James Lendemer, CUNY Graduate Center. “Assessing the biological diversity of the genus Lepraria s.l. (Lichenized Ascomycetes, Stereocaulaceae) in southeastern North America.“
2008
Naomi Fraga, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. “Biogeography and population genetics of the Mimulus palmeri clade.”
Jonathan Myers, Louisiana State University. “Ecological mechanisms maintaining plant species diversity: Seed dispersal limitation and environmental filtering in high-diversity pine savannas.”
2007
Diana Jolles, The Ohio State University. “Phylogeny and biogeography of the Pyrola picta species complex (Pyroleae: Monotropoideae: Ericaceae).”
Tara Massad, Tulane University. “Improvements in tropical reforestation through an understanding of plant secondary chemistry.”
2006
Michael Sundue, CUNY Graduate Center. “Phylogenetics of the Terpsichore taxifolia group. What does an ascomycete fungus tell us about the phylogeny of grammitid ferns?“
2005
Krissa A. Skogen, the University of Connecticut. “Investigating causes of recent population declines in a N2-fixing plant species Desmodium cuspidatum (Fabaceae).“
2004
William Bowman, Columbia University. “Between- and within-tree variation in CO2 efflux from woody stems and branches.“
2003
Isabel Ashton, SUNY Stony Brook. “Light availability and the invasion of woody vines into temperate forests.”
Paola Pedraza, CUNY Graduate Center. “Biodiversity of Neotropical Blueberries: Systematics and Phylogeny of Andean Disterigma (Ericaceae: Vaccinieae).“
2002
Holly Porter-Morgan, CUNY Graduate Center, “Flowering phenology and pollination ecology of several Chamaedorea (Palmae) species in Belize.“
Hugh Cross, Columbia University. “Genetic diversity of chayote (Sechium edule).”
Amna Ahmad, CUNY Graduate Center, “Systematics of Hymenocallis (Amaryllidaceae)“
2001
Olga Orozco, CUNY Graduate Center. “Survey of poisonous plants and their uses in Cajamarca, Peru“
2000
Gillian P. Schultz, University of California, Riverside. “Structure and floristics of the forests of the El Eden Ecological Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico.”