Please review the Zoology Graduate Awards sheet for more information on requests for proposals for the 2022-2023 academic year. 

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.

2021 Recipients:

• Dorian Brunzell and Erika Cabell

2020 Recipients:

• Dani Escontrela
  • Project Title: Coral feeding preference of the Hawaiian cushion star (Culcita novaeguineae)
• Kekuʻiapōiula Keliipuleole
  • Project Title: Comparative analysis of Hawaiian epigeal systems on the effects of Halocaridina rubra carrying capacit

2019 Recipients: 

• Alexandria Barkman
  • Project Title: Effects of the herbicide atrazine on the lace coral Pocillopora damicornis
• Erik Brush
  • Project Title: Factors affecting community structure on the coral Pocillopora grandis and indirect effects on host coral growth
• Taylor Ely
  • Project Title: Community-wide genetic patterns revealed through eDNA
• Austin Greene
  • Project Title: Does coral microbiome structure mirror local community structure and influence bleaching susceptibility?
• Kaitlyn Jacobs
  • Project Title: Genetic adaption or phenotypic plasticity: next generation sequencing in a non-model organism to explain the basis of a phase shift on a protected atoll
• Ryan Jones
  • Project Title: Indirect negative effects on corals of predation on Mutualistic Invertebrates
• Marisa McDonald
  • Project Title: Behavioral responses of larval stomatopods to ultraviolet light

2018 Recipients: 

• Austin Greene
  • Project title: Can predation on coral recruits among species and across depth gradients drive differences in community structure between shallow and mesophotic corals
• Ariana Huffmyer
  • Project title: Strength in numbers: The influence of tissue fusion on juvenile coral thermal tolerance
• Elizabeth Lenz
  • Project title: Reproductive plasticity and parental effects in the Hawaiian reef-building coral Montipora capitata under ocean warming
• Sitara Palecanda
  • Project title: Larval Behavior in Response to Ultraviolet Light
• Shreya Yadav
  • Project title: The afterlife of coral: how the degradation of dead coral colonies impacts reef complexity and reef fish assemblages

2017 Recipients: 

• Laura Damiani
  • Project title: Investigating protein biomarker expression in Pocillopora damicornis after exposure to atrazine
• Tom Iwanicki
  • Project title: Metatranscriptomics of opsin and luciferase expression in ocean zooplankton
• Marisa McDonald
  • Project title: Photoreceptor structures in four species of larval stomatopod crustaceans
• Patrick Nichols
  • Project title: Assessing biodiversity and community composition of corals using environmental DNA
• Emily Sesno
  • Project title: Persistence/resistance of the sea urchin (Tripneustes gratilla) to a changing ocean climate

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.”

2021 Recipients:

• Valentina Alvarez

2020 Recipients:

•  Marisa McDonald
  • Project Title: Examining the underwater light environment and visual physiology of larval stomatopod crustaceans in Hawai’i in pursuit of a greater understanding of early life history and ecology

2019 Recipients:

• Maria Costantini
  • ​Project title: Honeycreeper hosts: testing the effects of phylogeny, diet, and geographic location on microbome community structure using a classic Hawai’ian example of adaptive radiation
• Claire Lewis
  • Project Title: Characterizing the diversity of Hawai’i’s coral reefs

2018 Recipients: 

• Luke Campillo
  • Evolutionary diversification and adaptive radiation of endemic Hawaiian Honeycreepers

No recipients in 2017.

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.”

2021 Recipients:

• Natalie Myers

2020 Recipients:

• Jordan Gossett
  • Project Title: Population Divergence and Coevolution in Endemic Cave-Adapted Hawaiian Planthoppers
• Valentina Alvarez
  • Project Title: A native Hawaiian reptile? Timing the invasion of the Oceania Snake-Eyed Skink to Hawaii

2019 Recipients:

• Austin Greene
  • Project title: Does microbiome structure mirror local community structure and influence bleaching susceptibility?

2018 Recipients: 

• Austin Greene
  • Project title: Can predation on coral recruits among species and across depth gradients drive differences in community structure between shallow and mesophotic corals?

2017 Recipients: 

• Robyn Screen
  • Project title: What makes a successful invader? Examining the stress response of the invasive brown anole (Anolis sagrei) in Hawaii
• Erik Brush
  • Project title: Behavioral interactions between reef fishes inhabiting the coral Pocillopora eydouxi and transient piscivores

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.

No recipients in 2021

No recipients in 2020

2019 Recipients:

• Luke Campillo
  • Travel funds to participate in the North American Ornithological Conference (NAOC) in San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Project Title: Combining Morphological and Molecular Data to Reconstruct the Evolutionary History of Hawaiian Honeycreeper

2018 Recipients: 

• Maria Constantini
  • ​Travel funds to present at the American Ornithological Society Conference in Anchorage, Alaska.
  • Project title: Captivity and the Gut Microbiota of ‘Akikiki and ‘Akeke’e: Implications for Conservation of Two Critically Endangered Hawai’ian Honeycreepers

2017 Recipients: 

• Helen Sung
  • Travel funds to participate in the 2018 ​IUCN-Species​ ​Survival​ ​Commision​ ​Crocodile​ ​Specialist​ ​Group, Santa Fe, Argentina
• Lindsay Veazey
  • Travel funds to participate in the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, Oregon