Plant Ecology Scholarships

Grad Students May Study Locally or Internationally

With the exception of the scholarship offered by Colorado State University, the following awards are set aside for graduate students conducting research involving plant ecology. Some programs involve traveling while others are tied to a specific university.

Scholarship Programs

American Orchid Society

Applicants for the American Orchid Society‘s masters scholarships, doctoral fellowships and grants must be students of an accredited university whose research project furthers the knowledge and practice of orchidology. Proceeds are disbursed to the institution where the applicant studies.

Recent efforts underwritten by the AOS include a series of successive individual projects carried on by various scientists, studying those enzymes that play a role in plant senescence. That series led to important discoveries in orchid genetics.

• The American Orchid Society/Norman’s Orchids Masters Scholarshipprovides financial support for two years of thesis research in orchid-related education or science that will earn the student a master’s degree. The goal is to draw students to the field of orchidology, and the annual amount provided is $5,000.Applicants must submit a curriculum vitae, college transcripts, project synopsis, one-page summation of the project’s value to orchid studies, and a letter of recommendation.
• The Furniss Foundation/AOS Graduate Fellowship funds up to three years of scientific research for an orchid-related dissertation leading to a doctorate. The fellowship brings $9,000 per year, given to the sponsoring institution, and the required submissions are the same as those for the Masters Scholarship.
• The American Orchid Society Grants are awarded to further orchid conservation or scientific research on orchids, or to publish literature about orchids. Grants vary in amount, currently ranging between $500 and $12,000 for up to three years total.

Garden Club of America, Fellowship in Ecological Restoration

The Garden Club of America hands out the GCA Fellowship in Ecological Restoration to graduate students in plant science. The purpose of this $8000-per-annum fellowship is to support studies of how to help the environment recover from the disruptive effects of human activity, and it goes to a student at an accredited university in America.

Applicants must submit a cover letter, written proposal of the intended research (five pages maximum), a budget (one page) and resume (two pages). A letter of endorsement from the applicant’s faculty advisor and another letter of recommendation must accompany the application, and their authors must e-mail them to the judging committee.

Colorado State University, College of Agricultural Sciences

Applicants for the Ann B. Armstrong Colorado Plant Ecology Scholarshipmust meet the following standards:

• Reside in Colorado and attend Colorado State University
• Be in good academic standing
• Have a major in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture that emphasizes Colorado plant ecology
• Show interest in serious research in one of several specific fields related to plant ecology or Colorado ecosystems
• Receive preference if financial need can be proven.

The CSU College of Agricultural Sciences also offers a wide range of other horticultural scholarships such as the A.M. Binkley Memorial Scholarship, the Colorado Nursery Research and Education Foundation Scholarships, and the George & Lois Henry Memorial Scholarship in Horticulture.

Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center, University of Missouri – St. Louis

The Christensen Fund Endowed Graduate Program in Plant Conservation is designed for master’s and doctoral students in the Department of Biology, and is administered by the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center (formerly the International Center for Tropical Ecology). Applicants must be conducting research in applied plant conservation somewhere in the tropics, which includes portions of South America, Africa, South-East Asia, Malesia and the Pacific Islands.

The amount of the Christensen Fund award ranges between $2,000 and $3,000. The Harris Center administers a number of other graduate research scholarships and fellowships for similar projects, like the Henry B. Cowhey Scholarship in Tropical Conservation, the John Denver Memorial Scholarship in Tropical Ecology, and the Leo and Kay Drey Scholarship.

Northern California Botanist Scholarships

An organization known as the Northern California Botanists (NCB) hands out scholarships for botany and plant ecology research conducted in a certain geographical area in California. Undergraduate and graduate students conducting research in that area for any accredited university may apply, and if accepted will receive $1,000 per year.

Langenheim Fellowship

The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory offers the Dr. Jean H. Langenheim Endowed Graduate Fellowship in the Ecology and Evolution of Plants, which gives $3,000 per year to a graduate student after performance benchmarks are met.