The AMS Student Research Grants support summer research projects involving microscopy. Grants are award up to $1000. Any undergraduate or graduate student member of AMS who has not previously received a Student Research Grant is eligible to apply.

 

Guidelines for Proposals Requesting funds for AMS Student Research Grants:
1. Current CV (2 pages maximum)

2. Project Proposal

a. a project description of three double-spaced pages (11 pt font minimum) with five sections:
       i. Introduction - provide enough background information so that your objectives and expected significance of results can be evaluated by someone who is not an expert in your field.
       ii. Objectives - the specific work you plan to achieve with the funds requested in this proposal
       iii. Methods - including concise details of the microscopic approaches to be used in the research and an a brief explanation why these methods are the most appropriate to achieve the objectives of the project. If the research described in this proposal is part of a broader thesis or dissertation topic, you should write your methods section of this proposal only for the portion of the research for which you will use microscopy (you may explain your broader research objectives in the other sections of the proposal.)
       iv. Expected significance of results - including preliminary results or evidence that supports the likelihood of the project’s success.
       v. Literature cited.
b. a one page budget with justification - including information about other funding you have received for the research described in this proposal. AMS Student Research grants can be used for fees, supplies, use of equipment, and travel to research sites (travel to meetings and publication costs are not supported).

3. a letter of support from the student's research advisor. Contact details for the advisor must be included in the letter.

 

Email complete proposals as a single PDF file by March 1st to AMS@amicros.org with the subject line: AMS Student Research Grant Proposal

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Recipients of Student Research Grants 2006-2024:​

2024 Recipients Research Awards

• Siena McKim, University of California Santa Barbara

• Alexis Codding, California State University Long Beach

• Jun Cai, Oregon State University

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2023 Recipients Research Awards

• Katherine Newcomer Lawson, SUNY ESF

• Daniel Stanton, University of Florida

 

2019 Recipients

Valeri Lapacek, Kyle Heine, Ariana Rupp

 

2018 Recipients
Emily Naylor
Project Title: Investigating the evolution and diversity of gecko clinging morphology with microscopy

 

Robyn Reeve
Project Title: Xenopus larval melanocytes as a model for studying leptin signaling in melanomas

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2017 Recipients
Alyssa Liguori, Stony Brook University
Project Title: Copepod morphology across multiple generations of low pH exposure

 

Sarah McAnulty, University of Connecticut
Project Title: Judging a bacterium by its cover: development of immune tolerance in the squid-vibrio symbiosis

 

2016 Recipients
Cheng Zeng, Indiana University Bloomington
Project Title: Probing Reconstitution of Fully Collapsed Virus Capsid with Atomic Force Microscopy

 

Lily Pieper, Hamilton College
Project Title: Evolution and expression of venom genes in sea urchin pedicellariae

 

2015 Recipients

Tania Pineda Enriquez, University of Florida
Project title: Hiding in plain sight: cryptic species in brittle stars of the Indo-Pacific region

 

Kristin Kopperud, Ph.D. Candidate
Florida Institute of Technology
Project title: Circadian rhythms of the Atlantic tarpon, Megalops atlanticus: a microscopic analysis of light, dark and survival in the silver king.

 

2014 Recipients

Shelley McLarty, M.Sc. Candidate
Department of Biological Sciences
Walla Walla University
Project title: Microscopic analysis of photosynthetic gut content in Pentidotea resecata.

 

Lauren Sumner-Rooney, Ph.D. Candidate
Queen’s University Marine Laboratory
Project title: A microanatomical study of the eyes of Ophiocoma wendtii

 

2013 Recipients

Nikia Rice, M.Sc. Candidate
Florida Institute of Technology
Project title: Photoreceptor distribution of the Green sea turtle throughout development stages.

 

Des Ramirez, Ph.D. Candidate
University of California, Santa Barbara
Project title: Quantifying dispersion of dermal opsin-expressing sensory neurons in two Octopus species

 

2012 Recipients

Vladimir Gross
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
Project title: Comparative myoanatomy of the Tardigrada

 

Trisha Spanbauer
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Project title: The relation of climatic forcing to the morphological variability of a dominant phytoplankton species in the Andes

 

2011 Recipients

Caroline Harper
Brown University
Project title: The morphology of the brush-like papillae in a nectar-feeding bat, Glossophaga soricina.

 

Fredrick Larabee
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Project title: Comparative study of ant mandible mechanical properties and performance.

 

Nathan Farrar
University of Alberta
Project title: Visualizing the structure of primary cilia in the osculum of the demosponge, Ephydatia muelleri.

 

2010 Recipients

Shanna Hanes
Department of Biology, Auburn University
Project title: Elevated autophagic activity during hyperthermic stress in the tropical sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida: a novel bleaching  mechanism

 

Joey Pakes
Department of Integrative Biology, UC-Berkeley
Project title: Investigation of chemosymbionts in the anchialine cave crustaceans Speleonectes c.f. tulumensis (Remipedia) and Typhlatya  sp. (Eumalacostraca).

 

2009 Recipients

Jessica Budke
Department Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut
Project title: Examining the matrotrophic calyptra and its role in moss sporophyte development using Funaria hygrometrica L. (Bryophyta [mosses]).

 

Bill McLamb
Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology
Project title: Some like it hot: Transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels as components of the novel infrared sensory organs of boid and crotaline snakes.

 

2008 Recipients

Ivey Ellis
Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University
Project title: Comparative neural development of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica and the opisthobranch gastropod Berghia verrrucornis.

 

Andrea Cross
Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology
Project title: Development of photoreceptor arrays in the retina of the African Spurred Tortoise, Geochelone sulcata.

 

2007 Recipients

Maria Celia Malay
Department of Zoology, University of Florida - Gainesville
Project title: Systematics and speciation of the coral-dwelling barnacles (Balanomorpha: Pyrgomatidae)

 

Johannes Achatz
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maine - Orono
Project title: Neurogenesis in development and asexual reproduction of Convolutriloba macropyga (Acoela)

 

2006 Recipients

Jodi L. Caskey
Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Project title: Contact chemoreception of sex pheromones in shrimp

 

J. Matthew Hoch
Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University
Project title: Effects of environment and population density on barnacle penis morphology