Graduate Student Research Award

The New England Botanical Society offers awards of up to $3,000 to graduate students to support botanical research. The awards encourage and support botanical research on the New England flora (plants, algae, and fungi), including support for field, lab, and herbarium work, as well as travel to and within New England by those who would not otherwise be able to work in the region.

Applicants do not need to be a member of our organization to apply for this award.

The awards are made to the graduate student(s) submitting the best research proposal pertaining to the New England flora in systematics, floristics, ecology, evolution, biogeography, population genetics, paleobotany, conservation biology, or related fields. Publications based on the research funded through the award should acknowledge NEBS’s support. Submission of manuscripts to the Society’s journal, Rhodora, is strongly encouraged.

Application Instructions

Graduate Student Research Award Winners

2025

• Jason Leung of Columbia University – “Sequencing 19th century herbairum specimens to understand the loss of genetic diversity in a regionally extinct beach plant, Amaranthus pumilus Raf., or seabeach amaranth”
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• Caroline Witherspoon of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry – “Usnea subfloridana as a model for understanding the drivers of the distribution and ecology of imperiled Usnea lichens in the northeastern United States”
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2024

• Rachel Hopkins of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry – “Mountain plants on the move: Tracking 60 years of climate-induced changes on Whiteface Mountain, New York State”
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• Prasanth Prabhu of Clark University – “Metabolomics and comparative transcriptomics to understand the evolution of the nematode-paralyzing neurotoxin in the invasive fungus Pleurotus citrinoplieatus Singer”
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• Vidya S. Vuruputoor of University of Connecticut – “Elucidating genomic mechanisms of hemlock woolly adelgid resistance through transcriptome profiling”
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2023

• Meredith Theus of Cornell University – “Effects of plant photosynthetic pathway on greenhouse gas emissions from Northeastern wetlands”
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• Andrea J. Tirrell of University of Maine – “A sky island perspective: New England alpine plant distributions through 40 years of global change”
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2022

• Amelia A. Fitch of Dartmouth College – “Investigating the role of mycorrhizal fungi in New England forest management”
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• Joseph Jaros of Fordham University – “Linking plant soil feedback to population dynamics using demographic models of knotweed”
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• Cooper M. Kimball-Rhines of University of Mass-Boston – “Conservation and restoration of Lupinus perennis, a keystone pine barren pioneer”
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• Emmi Kurosawa of University of Mass-Boston – “How carnivorous are you? Seasonal changes in carnivory and prey preference among carnivorous plants of New England”
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• Max McCarthy of Rutgers University – “Effects of flower phenology on pollination and reproduction of a protandrous plant”
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2021

• Michael LaScaleia of University of Connecticut – “What role do top-down and bottom-up enemy release play in exotic plant invasion of New England forests?”
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• Madeleine Meadows-Mcdonnell of University of Connecticut – “Coastal wetland carbon dynamics: testing how salinity and light affect root exudation rates of dominant salt marsh grasses”
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• Aiden Stanley of University of Pittsburgh – “Have human-mediated disturbances led to changes in pollination of native flowering plants?”
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2020

• Jacob Suissa of Harvard University – “The effects of stelar architecture on hydraulic integration in fern rhizomes”
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• Hannah Vollmer of Plymouth State University – “Conservation genetics of two rare alpine roses in the White Mountains of New Hampshire”
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2019

• Jamie Harrison of Boston University – “Combined effects of growing season warming and winter freeze/thaw cycles on northern hardwood forest ecosystems of New England”
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• Michelle R. Jackson of University of Massachusetts Amherst – “The potential impacts of increased warming and nitrogen on Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) physiology across a latitudinal gradient”
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• Fiona Jevon of Dartmouth College – “Do density-dependent feedbacks drive New Enggland temperate tree seedling growth, survival, and diversity?”
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2018

• Steven Ballou, Jr. of University of Memphis – “Morphology, Ecology, and Population Genetics of Lactuca hirsuta (Asteraceae) on the Cape and Nantucket, Massachusetts, with special consideration of L. hirsuta var. sanguine“
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• James Mitchell of Harvard University – “Diversity and host specificity in the Genus Sarea Fr. (Ascomycota)”
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• Anastasia Mozharova of University of Massachusetts Boston – “Identifying the presence of submersed aquatic plant species at low abundances using the eDNA (environmental DNA) method and next-generation sequencing”
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2017

• Jenifer Dickinson of Antioch University New England – Defining the habitat characteristics of four rare alpine plant species in the Presidential Mountain Range, New Hampshire, USA”
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• Karl Fetter of University of Vermont – “Reduced hybrid fitness maintains species boundaries in two fully compatible poplars”
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• Ellie M. Goud of Cornell University – “Plant carbon gain and water loss strategies as driverse for the maintenance of diversity: A novel approach using leaf carbon and oxygen stable isotopes”
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2016

• Kevin Berend of the State University of New York – “Investigating the environmental constraints on a threatened ecosystem: Snowbed communities of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire”
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• Charlie Nicholson of the University of Vermont – “Pollination shadows: Do perennial crops impact the reproductive success of a New England spring ephemeral?”
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• Adam Ramsey of the University of Memphis – “Assessing the risk of Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) on the pollination of toothed whitetop aster on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts”
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2015

• Weston Testo of the University of Vermont – “Systematics of Huperzia (Lycopodiaceae) and taxonomic revision of the North American species.”
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• James Wood of the University of Georgia – “Impacts of urbanization on an understudied riverine macrophyte, Podostemum ceratophyllum Michx.: heavy metal accumulation and altered elemental composition in relationship to change in watershed land use.”
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• Ellen Woods of University of Connecticut – “Understanding evolutionary mechanisms driving the expansion of a New England invasive, Polygonum cespitosum.”
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2014

• Eva Dannenberg of Antioch University New England – “Boreal calciphiles in Vermont, USA: Predictive modeling and examination of rare plant habitat distribution”

• Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie of Boston University – “Spring phenology and cliamte change in Acadia National Park”

• Katherine Putney of University of Georgia – “Evaluating the natural abuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities associated with sexually dimorphic Geranium maculatum“
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2013

• Dennis Dietz of University of Massachusetts Amherst – “Inbreeding depression and pollination limitation in Sarracenia purpurea L. ssp. purpurea”

• Karoline Oldham of George Mason University – “Geographical history and infraspecific morphological variation of the hemiparasitic wildflower, American Cow-wheat (Melampyrum lineare; Orobanchaceae)”
  Abstracts

2012

• Kirsten Martin of University of Central Florida – “Disturbance based management in a changing world: Species composition in Massachusetts sandplain heathlands over the past two decades”

• Leif Richardson of Dartmouth College – “Toxic nectar in turtlehead (Chelone glabra): Pollination by self-medicating bees”
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2011

• Daniel Robarts of The Ohio State University – “Determining patterns of genetic diversity and post-glacial colonization of Viola predata (Violaceae) with microsatellite markers”
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2010

• Alison J. Parker of the University of Toronto – “The effect of pollinator behavior on pollen transfer and floral adaptation across a geographic landscape: Claytonia virginica and Andrena erigeniae“
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2009

• Lucas C. Majure of the University of Flora – “The Systematics and Evolution of the Opuntia humifusa complex (Cactaceae)”
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2008

• Kelsey Glennon of George Washington University – “Systematic clarification of the rare New England group of Houstonia longifolia using AFLP with implications for conservation”

• Sydne Record of the University of Massachusetts Amherst – “Conservation While Under Invasion: Insights from a Rare Hemiparasitic Plant, Swamp Lousewort (Peddicularis lanceolata Michx.)”
  Abstracts
  

2007

• Benjamin E. Wolfe of Harvard University – “Biogeography, genetic diversity and host specificity of Amanita in New England”
  Abstract

2006

• Jonathon Schramm of Rutger’s University – “A multiscale analysis of contemporary and historical facilitators of the invasion of an exotic grass into hardwood forests of New Jersey”

• Lynn McNamara of the Antioch New England Graduate School – “The geographic and ecological distribution of wild chervil, Anthriscus sylvestris (L.) Hoffm. in Vermont”
  Abstracts
  

2005

• David Ellum of Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies – “Acclimation of shade-adapted understory herbs to seasonal canopy disturbances: incorporating physiology into plant conservation strategies for managed forests of southern New England”

• David Hewitt of the Harvard University Farlow Herbarium – “Species delimitation of the ascomycete genus Neolecta in New England based on ITS sequence comparison”

• Sara Scanga of the State University of New York College of Environemntal Science and Forestry – “The effects of demography and the abiotic environment on the rarity and persistence of a critically imperiled wetland wildflower, Trollius laxus (Ranunculaceae)”
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2004

• Krissa Skogen of the University of Connecticut – “Using demography, genetic diversity, and the effects of increased nitrogen deposition to understand the decline of Desmodium cuspidatum (Fabaceae)”
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2003

• Jesse Bellermare of Cornell University – “The Influence of Life History Traits on Patterns of Holocene Migration and Geographic Distribution of Forest Herbs in the Berberidaceae, Liliaceae and Ranunculaceae”

• Julie Dragon of the University of Vermont – “The Systematics and Phylogeny of Carex lenticularis and its allies, section Phacocystis (Cyperaceae)”
  Abstracts

2002

• Lisa Karst of Portland State University – “Phylogeny of Sisyrinchium (Iridaceae), genetic and morphological evidence”

• Isabel Ashton of the State University of New York at Stony Brook – “Invasive, exotic non-invasive, and native woody vines of the northeastern United States”
  Abstracts

2001

• Michael Moody of the University of Connecticut – “Phylogenetics, phenotypic plasticity, and potential hybrids in the aquatic plant genus Myriophyllum (Haloragaceae)”

• Valerie Reeb of the University of Illinois at Chicago – “Phylogenetics of the Acarosporaceae (lichen-forming Ascomycetes) and Acrospora, and worldwide revision of the species complex A. cervina-A. glaucocarpa“

• Rachel Williams of Michigan State University – “Phylogeny of Pycnanthemum (Lamiaceae) with emphasis on high level polyploidy in the Virginianum complex”
  Abstracts

2000

• Dirk Albach of the Universitat Wien (Austria) – “Evolution, biogeography and genetic diversity in Veronica alpina L. and related taxa”

• Michael Booth of Yale University – “Material flows across ectomycorrhizal networks and plant diversity in New England forests.” [resulting work published as Mycorrhizal networks mediate overstorey-understorey competition in a temperate forest”, Ecology Letters, 7: 538-546.]

1999

• Joel Gerwein of University of Massachusetts Boston – “Long-Term effects of forest fragmentation on genetic diversity of red oak (Quercus rubra L.): a comparison of old-growth and secondary forests”

• Julie Ellis of Brown University – “The role of nesting seabirds in structuring New England coastal plant communities”

1998

• Sonja Schmitz of University of Vermont – “Inferring evolutionary and biogeographic history from patterns of genetic variation in inland and Coastal Beachpea (Lathyrus japonicus) populations”

• David Moeller of Cornell University – “The ecology and evolution of self-pollination in Blue Flag (Iris versicolor): an island – mainland comparison”

1997

• Tatyana Rand of Brown University – “Seed supply, habitat suitability and the distribution of halophytic forbs across a salt marsh landscape”

• Thomas Vining of University of Maine at Orono – “Phenology and hybridization of Picea mariana and P. rubens (Pinaceae) in Maine”

1996

• Bruce Henning Lindwall of University of Massachusetts at Amherst – “The genetic consequences of long-term habitat fragmentation”

1995

• Peter Walker of University of Vermont – “Speciation in Ammophila: Sequence variation in the internal transcribed spacer of nuclear ribosomal DNA”

1994

• Andrea Stevens of University of Massachusetts at Amherst – “Paleoecology of sandplain grasslands in Massachusetts”

1993

• R. Deborah Overath of University of Georgia – “Effects of apomixis on genetic variation in Amelanchier laevis“

1992

• Fracois Lutzoni of Duke University – “Phylogenetics of Omphalina (Basidiomycetina, Agaricales) and the evolution of lichenization”

1990

• Allison Dibble of University of Maine – “Status of Amelanchier nantucketensis, Nantucket Shadbush (Rosaceae: Maloideae), a narrow endemic of coastal Massachusetts”

1989

• Scott Shumway of Brown University – “Population genetics of a founder species in an incipient salt marsh”

1988

• C. Thomas Philbrick of University of Connecticut – “Systematic studies in Callitriche (Callitrichaceae) in North America”

1987

• Zack Murrell of Duke University – “Systematics of Cornus“

1986

• Debra Dunlop of University of New Hampshire – “Biosystematics of Carex section Scirpinae (Cyperaceae)”

1985

• Warren F. Lamboy of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – “A systematic study of Aster section Biotia”

Application Instructions

Application Instructions PDF

The application period opens on December 1 and closes on February 1. Applicants will be notified as to the success of their proposals by March 1.

Students may submit their portion of the application (Part A) by emailing to the Committee Chair OR through this Google Form.

Letters of reference and support from the applicant’s sponsors (Part B) must be sent separately and directly to the Graduate Student Research Awards Committee Chair, preferably as a PDF. Letters must be signed and should be on official letterhead.

Part A – May be emailed as individual PDFs in a single email OR submitted as PDFs via Google Form.

• Cover Sheet listing the applicant’s Name, Email, Institution, City, State, Title of the Research Proposal, and the names and email addresses of the two reference letter writers. (Note: On the Google Form these are short answer questions and not a PDF.)
• Proposal of no more than 3 double-spaced pages, written in a scientific format and with a clear hypothesis or research question. Include the Literature Cited with the proposal, but Literature Cited is not included in the 3-page count.
• Budget with brief justification, on a single page. Requests up to $3000 will be considered. In your budget, please describe what funding and support you currently have for the proposed research. This information may be used to address whether there are sufficient funds to complete the proposed research, and it may also be used to assess financial need. The NEBS acknowledges that some research project proposals include non-traditional and/or intellectually higher-risk methodologies and/or ideas that may be challenging to obtain support for from other funding sources.
• Permits & Permissions: Proposed list of field sites and evidence of permissions or permits received or pending. If appropriate, please fill out this form.
• Curriculum vitae (CV)

Part B – Two reference letters in support of the proposed research. These reference letters should be sent via email directly by the writers to the Graduate Student Research Awards Committee Chair.

Electronic submission to the GSRA Committee Chair is required.

Dr. Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie

Email: GSRA@rhodora.org

If you have questions regarding eligibility, budget, and scope, please email the Committee Chair at GSRA@rhodora.org

PLEASE NOTE: Winners of awards amounting to $600 or more will be required to submit IRS Form W-9 Request for Taxpayer Identification Number (provided by our treasurer) before award checks will be issued. In these cases, a Form 1099 will be issued the following January to the recipient reporting the amount as an award (as required by law). Awards will ONLY be paid to the award recipients and NOT to any third party (such as colleges, universities, research institutions, employers, family members, etc.). For winners who are not United States residents, nonrefundable tax withholding of 30% will generally apply unless reduced or exempted by tax treaty.