Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Awards Grant

The Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Awards, established by the Botanical Society of America, support graduate student research in botanical sciences. Originally named after Dr. John Sidney Karling, these awards have expanded to include multiple recipients, with amounts reaching $1500. In 2023, the AJ Harris Graduate Student Research Award was introduced to honor a prominent BSA member, showcasing research aligned with her integrative approach. This initiative promotes diversity and encourages students globally.

The purpose of these awards is to support and promote graduate student research in the botanical sciences. The award was originally made possible in 1997 by a gift from the late Dr. John Sidney Karling. Dr. Karling started his career at Columbia and moved to Purdue as a full professor where he was head of Biological Science for more than a decade. His research interests were in cytology, marine fungi, and tropical biology. He was an active member of both the Torrey Botanical Club and the BSA.
In 2004, acknowledging the importance of graduate student research, the BSA restructured the award to include one $500 J. S. Karling Graduate Student Research Award in conjunction with nine $500 BSA Graduate Student Research Awards. In 2012 we added another five awards, and in 2013 another five, for a total of 19. In July 2017, it was announced that the GSRAs would be renamed the Bill Dahl Graduate Student Resarch Awards in honor of BSA's first Executive Director who was a strong proponent for student support and involvement in the Society. In 2019 BSA increased these awards to $1500 each!
In 2023 a new graduate student research award was established in memory of AJ Harris. AJ was a long-time member of BSA and and the leading organizer of the Beringia symposium at Botany 2022 in Anchorage, has led Colloquia at Botany Conferences, and was a staunch supporter and promoter of women in botany and diversity at all levels. Her research endeavors were highly integrative, spanning traditional specimen-based science, paleobotany, phylogenomics, biogeography, and computational biology. The AJ Harris Graduate Student Research Award was given for the first time in 2024 to a GSRA applicant whose research aligned with AJ's and was in he amount of $1200.

Eligibility

To be eligible, one must be a member of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), a registered full-time graduate student, have a faculty research advisor who is also a member of the BSA, and not have won the award previously.Applicants and advisors are advised to join the BSA if they are not already members to facilitate the application process.This award is NOT limited to students in the United States.
You must be a member of this organization to apply for this award - become a member.

Ineligibility

This award may not be used for overhead, however, awarded funds can be used to pay hourly wages for student research assistants.