October 18, 2021
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:
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:
Best of luck to this year’s applicants!
Kristina Butler (5th Year PhD Candidate, 2018 NSF GRFP Fellowship recipient)
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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.