The School of Life Sciences offers several research and travel awards for graduate students made possible through donations and endowments from alumni and former faculty. Requests for proposals are circulated early each fall semester. Awards are made once each year by a selection committee appointed by the Director of the School of Life Sciences. Please direct inquiries to Dr. Megan Porter.
Please read the description for each award carefully to determine whether you are eligible.
The Charles H. and Margaret B. Edmondson Research Fund- Grants in Aid of Research and Publication for Graduate Students in the area of Hawai`i marine invertebrate zoology.
The trust established in the will of long time University of Hawai`i Professor of Zoology and Bishop Museum Marine Zoologist Charles H. Edmondson and his wife Margaret B. Edmondson provides several awards for research and publication. Edmondson Grants-in-Aid are meant to enhance a research project by providing funds to enable a particular aspect of the effort that might otherwise be impossible. This may include, but is not restricted to, purchase of special supplies or small equipment, research travel, access to special training or facilities (e.g., electron microscopes), or assistance with publication. The award is open to students in any graduate program but the research project must involve marine invertebrate animals and focus on Hawai`i.
Jessie D. Kay Memorial Research Grants in Hawai`ian Natural History, Zoology and Marine Malacology
The Jessie D. Kay Memorial Fund provides two research grants in the amount of $10,000 every year. Awards are open to students in any program but funds may be used “…to support the study of natural history with an emphasis on zoology and marine malacology, the study of marine mollusks.” The trust document additionally stipulates that “.… the Fund may support graduate students in zoology, with the preference to those attending the University of Hawai`i, particularly with the interest in the natural history of the Hawai`ian Islands.”
Elizabeth Alison Kay Endowed Awards for students in Biology/Zoology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
This fund was established in honor of Prof. E. Alison Kay at the time of her retirement from the Department of Zoology in 2001. Dr. Kay designated that income from the fund provide research awards to students in Zoology at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. Specifically, E. A. Kay Research Awards are meant “ … to encourage and reward outstanding students who have an interest in the natural history of the Hawai`ian Islands [with] preference to students whose focus is whole organism natural history.”
Dr. Charles and Sandra Guest-Van Riper Endowed Student Travel Award for Graduate Students
The purpose of this Fund is to provide travel and attendance support to professional meetings for graduate students majoring in Biology, with preference to students studying Ornithology at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa College of Natural Sciences.