NSF Graduate Research Fellowship: >15 years of Geoscience awards and application advice from a panel of awardees

October 18, 2021 | Kristina Butler (PhD 2022)

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship application deadline is fast approaching (October 22 for Geoscience).  The Jackson School has a rich history of producing successful GRFP applicants. To help with your application, here I summarize historical Geoscience NSF GRFP awards, successful applicants’ advice, and the abundant resources at JSG and UT to assist with your proposal preparation

Between 2005-2021, 1492 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and 1564 Honorable Mention awards were made in Geoscience across 28 disciplines. Eighty of these awards were to UT-Austin graduate students and alumni, with most of the awards made in the disciplines of Tectonics, Hydrologic Sciences, and Geophysics (Fig. 1-2). At least seven UT-Austin alumni GRFP awardees are now Assistant Professors*.

A 2020-2021 survey of 33 Geoscience awardees from 17 institutions revealed:

• 100% of awardees felt the NSF GRFP was worth the time and energy to apply, regardless of receiving a Fellowship or Honorable mention. They also say it would have been worth the time to apply had they not received an award citing many reasons why!
• 100% of awardees had two or more peers or mentors review their application before submission, with 55% having more than four people review their documents.
• Most (73%) said they spent months preparing their application documents
• Most (66%) gave their complete application package to their letter writers in advance of them preparing their letters of reference for the applicant
• Most awardees gave the advice that applicants should reference example successful applications in the discipline and many (82%) said they were willing to share their application documents as an example if asked directly!

The results of the survey includes abundant advice (some 13 pages of comments from awardees, don’t worry I organized it and paired It down!!) about requesting letters of recommendation, writing the Broader Impact and Intellectual Merit sections of the application, specific advice on the Personal Statement, and on applying as an undergraduate student. You can find the complete survey results, participant demographics and summarized results hosted at futurerockdoc.com.

Because so many survey participants recommended finding examples of successful applications and having past awardees review your application documents, I’ve compiled a list of NSF GRFP Geoscience Fellowship and Honorable Mention Geoscience awardees from UT-Austin by discipline at the end of this post. These are individuals who reported UT-Austin as their Bachelor or Current Institution**. Keep in mind, not everyone will be willing to share their application documents (especially if their award is recent), they may decline to review your application documents, and some awardees may not have matriculated within the Jackson School. Applicants, if you choose to contact awardees,  please respect their time and research ideas.

From personal experience, many awardees were willing to share their application documents and advice. When I was applying to graduate school, I reached out to UT-Austin alumna Emily Cooperdock who graciously answered my many questions and sent me her application documents. Upon arriving at UT-Austin, my research group mates were equally helpful and willing to share their applications (Sarah George, Lily Jackson, Chelsea Mackaman-Lofland, and Tomas Capaldi).

Furthermore, at the Jackson School, we are very fortunate to have a wealth of resources for preparing grant and scholarship applications. Here is just a short list of the resources on offer to help with your NSF GRF:

• Adam Papendieck – JSG’s Writer in Residence
  • With an appointment, Adam can review your application documents and give critiques from years of grant writing experience!
• University Writing Center
  • One-on-one writing meetings, groups and workshops for any piece of writing
• Broader Impacts: Designing and Communicating for Consequential Science – taught by Adam Papendieck
  • See official course description here
• Fellowship Proposal Writing Workshop — hosted by Adam Papendieck
  • already passed for this year, but is offered annually. Watch for emails from Adam announcing future dates if planning a GRF for next year!
• Curiosity to Question – taught by Julia Clark
  • See official course description here.

Best of luck to this year’s applicants!

Kristina Butler (5^th Year PhD Candidate, 2018 NSF GRFP Fellowship recipient)

www.kristinalbutler.com

www.futurerockdoc.com

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Fellowship and Honorable Mention awards to UT-Austin students and alumni, by discipline in the field of Geoscience between 2005-2021 with links to their research websites and Twitter profiles as available:

If two award years are listed, awardee received both Honorable Mention and Fellowship awards or received Honorable Mention twice.

Atmospheric Chemistry

Sarah E. Johnson (2021)

Biogeochemistry     

Claire Griffin (2012) @polargriffin

Alison Tune (2018) @HtuneOh

Aquanette Sanders (2020)

Lacey Pyle (2012)

Climate and Atmospheric Dynamics

Lindsey Gulden (2005)

Ashley Payne (2011) @atm_cricks

Jonathan Weyn-Vanhentenryck (2014)

Geobiology   

Janna Muhammad (2021) @muhammad_janna

Geochemistry

Emily H.G. Cooperdock (2014)

Rania Eldam (2014)

Miguel Cisneros (2012, 2013) @mcisneros_geo

Kimberly Aguilera (2017)

Natalie Raia (2017, 2019)

Danny Anderson (2018)

Alexandra Holmes (2019)

Danny Anderson (2019)

Geology

Ana Collins (2009)     

Nicholas Perez (2011) @tectonick_

Laura Dafov (2016)

Geomorphology      

Brendan Murphy (2012, 2013)

Brandee Carlson (2015)

Victoria Fitzgerald (2017)

Julianne Scamardo (2019)

Susannah Morey (2019)

Geophysics

Dustin Schroeder (2009) @RadioGlaciology

Brent Minchew (2010)

Laura Lindzey (2015)

Ryan Cahalan (2015)

Kimberly McCormack (2015)

Shawn Lee (2017)

Glaciology

Evelyn Powell (2016)

Eric Gagliano (2020) @EricGagliano

Hydrologic Sciences 

Elspeth Steinhauer (2006)

Brian Kiel (2008)

Claire Griffin (2011) also awarded Fellowship in 2012 in biogeochemistry

Anne Dunckel (2011)

Michelle Miro (2011, 2012)

Katherine Markovich (2012, 2014)

Tiffany Kocis (2015)

Madelyn Percy (2015)

Emma Heitmann (2019)

Sebastian Munoz (2021)

Paleoclimate

Lauren Greene (2010)

Christopher Cacciatore (2014)

Patricia Standring (2020) @Patty_Standring

Curtis Bixler (2011)

Paleontology and Paleobiology

Grace Musser (2016) in Life Sciences – Systematics and Biodiversity

Jasmine Nelson (2020)

William Reyes (2021) @WAReyes6

Petrology

Nicholas Meszaros (2019)

Stephanie Suarez (2019) @geologiststephy

Darien Florez (2020)

Sedimentary Geology

Elisabeth Steel (2014) @Dr_ESteel

Rose Palermo (2016) @Wind_Wave_Rose

Julie Zurbuchen (2016)

Scarlette Hsia (2019) @ScubaScar

Claudia Banks (2021)

Tectonics     

Edward Cross (2013)

Douglas Barber (2014, 2015)

Rachel Bernard (2015) @rachelxbernard

Sarah W.M. George (2015)

Alissa Kotowski (2015, 2016)

Lily Jackson (2015, 2016)

Chelsea Mackaman-Lofland (2015, 2016)

Tomas Capaldi (2016)

James Biemiller (2016, 2017)

Kristina Butler (2018) @futurerockdoc

Emily Mixon (2018) @emilyemixon

Other

Anastasia Piliouras (2013)

Jonah Kisesi (2011)

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*UT-Austin alumni NSF GRFP Fellowship and Honorable Mention awardees who are now Assistant Professors: Emily H.G. Cooperdock (University of Southern California), Nicholas Perez (Texas A&M), Brendan Murphy (Simon Fraser University), Dustin Schroeder (Stanford University), Rachel Bernard (Amherst College), Ashley Payne (University of Michigan), and Tomas Capaldi (UNLV). If you know of additional awardees that are now tenure track professors, please write to me (kristina.butler@utexas.edu) so I can update this list!

**NSF reports award type, awardee name, field of student and bachelors’ and current institution for all Honorable Mention and Fellowship awards, here. Only awards in which awardees reported the University of Texas at Austin as their “Current Institution” of “Bachelor Institution” were included.