We are pleased to announce the Gesneriad Society Student Convention Grants to be awarded to students interested in or actively studying the plant family Gesneriaceae. The grants will provide registration and accommodation costs for students to attend this year's convention to be held July 5-9 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The grants have been established to promote participation among students and tomorrow's researchers and to foster scholarship in students of Gesneriaceae. Grants will be issued on a competitive basis. It is expected that each award recipient will present a poster or 15-minute presentation at the convention.
The application for 2011 awards is due by May 1, 2011. To apply, send the following materials (with the subject line: Student Convention Grant Application) in a single PDF document to studentsconventiongrants@gesneriadsociety.org and include:
- Your name, institutional affiliation, and all contact information including address, telephone, and email.
- A 500-word or less description of why you should attend the convention including comments about your education and research goals and how attending convention will help advance these goals (sign and scan it to PDF).
- Your curriculum vitae, not to exceed two US letter-sized pages (scan and include in the single PDF).
- A letter of recommendation signed by your major advisor or faculty representative (scan and include in the single PDF).
- The title and brief description of your poster or talk (please specify) to be presented at convention.
Label the file as in the following example: Jane Q Doe would label her file Doe_JQ_Convention_Student_Award_2011.PDF. Applications exceeding the specified length for description and CV will not be accepted.
Grant recipients will be notified by email of their award status by May 15, 2011. Awards will cover registration, all convention meals and activities costs as well as shared room accommodations for up to five nights during the convention. Travel to and from convention, other meals not included in the convention program, and incidentals will be at the expense of each student.
The Gesneriad Society's annual conventions offer enthusiasts and researchers alike the opportunity to come together to see a diverse array of living gesneriads, to hear programs and workshops about recent research, field work, specific genera, and culture of gesneriads.
If you have any questions about the application or this year's convention, please email studentsconventiongrants@gesneriadsociety.org
A related comment: It's always good to see The Gesneriad Society encourage and support researchers in the field. One of the lectures I enjoyed very much at the 2009 Convention in Washington, D.C., was by Dr. Silvana Martén-Rodríguez on "Pollinators and Floral Evolution in Caribbean Gesneriads." I never posted about it here, but I just found a couple of photographs:
