Founder's Award Grant

Founder's Award Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: The Willi Hennig Society
Last Updated: November 14, 2025

Summary

The Founder's Award, established by the Hennig Society, supports graduate students conducting parsimony-based research in Phylogenetic Systematics. Since its inception in 1980, the award honors founder J. S. Farris's vision of recognizing evolutionarily real entities or monophyletic groups. Eligible candidates must be enrolled in a university and engaged in thesis research, using the funds for fieldwork, museum visits, or equipment, while avoiding specific ineligible expenses.

Overview

The Hennig Society was founded in 1980 with the expressed purpose of promoting the field of Phylogenetic Systematics. Hennig's idea that groups of organisms, or taxa, should be recognized and formally named only in cases where they are evolutionarily real entities, that is "monophyletic," at first was controversial. It is now the prevailing approach to modern systematics. This research award, in honor of our Founder J. S. Farris, will fund parsimony-based research on systematics by graduate students.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Applicants must be already enrolled at a university, and well into their thesis researchThe funds may be used for:Thesis-related fieldwork Museum visitsEquipmentOther expenses not easily funded by grants for graduate studentsThe research must either be:Theoretical/methodological on the basics and fundamentals of parsimony analysis, orHigh-quality empirical research using parsimony in novel and creative ways

Ineligibility

Money is not to be spent on bench fees, meetings, nor tuition fees (nor on stipend except in unusual circumstances).