Undergraduate Student Research Fellowship

The Torrey Botanical Society supports undergraduate student research with three annual awards: $1,500, $1,000 and $500. Undergraduate students who are members of the Society are eligible to apply for an award. This award must be used to help defray laboratory and/or fieldwork expenses related to botanical research.

Applications will open on October 15, 2023. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2024. Applications will be judged by a committee appointed by the Society’s Council. Recipients will be announced in early spring.

Proposals must include:
1) title page with proposal title, applicant’s name, address, and e-mail address;
2) body of the proposal of no more than two pages;
3) literature cited page;
4) budget, including brief justification for each item;
5) a current C.V.; and
6) a letter from the major professor detailing the current status of the applicant and his/her qualifications.

The proposals should be written using Times New Roman font, 12-point, with pages having 1-inch top and bottom margins, and 1.25-inch side margins. 

At the end of the calendar year of support, a report of one paragraph should be sent by the award recipient to the Chair of the Grants and Awards Committee.

Recipients of research fellowships should consider publishing results of the research in the Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society.

Please send all materials and inquiries to grants@torreybotanical.org.

Past Recipients

2022
Ryan Schmidt, Rutgers University. “Rediscovering the “Weeds” of New Jersey: Understanding the Distribution of Weedy and Nonnative Species in New Jersey through Specimen Collection”
Diamanda Zizis, Bucknell University. “Solanum dioicum and Solanum ultraspinosum: A morphometric analysis of hybrid offspring from parents with different sexual systems”
Kayleigh Dodson, University of Colorado, Boulder. “Stress-tolerance of endangered Lantana depressa and invasive Lantana strigocamara

2021
Jonathan Hayes, Bucknell University. “Genetic diversity & connectivity of Chasmanthium latifolium (Poaceae) in Pennsylvania & the effect on conservation status.”
Emily Smith, Drake University. “The function of staminodes in the reproductive success and pollination ecology of American Persimmon, Diospyros virginiana (Ebenaceae).”
Ryan McGinnis, Drake University. “Battle of the sexes: Intra- and Interindividual floral variation in a native fruit tree, American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana, Ebenaceae).”

2020
Lucas Sharrett, Christopher Newport University. “Volatile organic compound emissions and floral morphology of three species of sexually dimorphic Silene differing in pollinator composition.”

2019
Noah Yawn, Donald E. Davis Arboretum, Auburn University. “Reassessment of the critically endangered Alabama canebrake pitcher plant Sarracenia alabamensis Case & R.B.Case populations and occurrences 24 years later.”
Olivia Asher, Lehman College. “Systematics of Scleroderma (Fungi, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes, Boletales) in Australia.”
Sai Batchu, The College of New Jersey. “Metabolomic analysis of smutted Andropogon virginicus.”

2018
No awards given.

2017
Jamie Mitchel Waterman, The University of Vermont. “Analysis of proanthocyanidins (condensed tannins) within foliage of Populus balsamifera, Populus deltoides, and their hybrids during Melampsora spp. infection.”