Mineralogical Society of America, Founded December 30, 1919
revised 12/10/2021
The Mineralogical Society of America's Grants for Student Research In Mineralogy And Petrology are funded by an endowment created by contributions from the MSA membership. The grant comprises two awards of up to $5,000 each for research in mineralogy and petrology.
Students, including graduate and undergraduate students, are encouraged to apply. However, all proposals are considered together. The award selection will be based on the qualifications of the applicant, the quality, innovativeness, and scientific significance of the research, and the likelihood of success of the project.
The eligibility requirements for the grant are that the applicant:
The grant is for research-related expenses only. Travel to meetings, conferences, short courses, non-research fieldtrips, tuition, non-research living (room and board) expenses, overhead or indirect costs, etc. are not suitable uses of the money. Neither should the money be used for salary or wages for the researcher. Proposals that make such requests will not be considered further.
The successful applicant will also be asked in the year following grant to write a short summary of how the money was spent.
The next award will be made in May, 2022. Proposal submissions for the grant must be emailed to Ann Benbow at abenbow@minsocam.org by midnight on March 1, 2022. A Word template for the application can be found HERE. Please complete the template, attach your proposal and budget, save as a PDF and email it to Dr. Benbow.
Further information can also be obtained from:
Dr. Ann E. Benbow
Mineralogical Society of America
3635 Concorde Pkwy Ste 500
Chantilly VA 20151-1110 USA
Tel: +1 (703) 652-9950
Fax: +1 (703) 652-9951
e-mail:abenbow@minsocam.org
2021 - Eva Baransky, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA - "Investigating Ni isotope fractionation during interaction with birnessite and implications for the marine Ni budget."
2021 - Juliet Ryan-Davis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA - "Developing fs-LA-MC-ICPMS protocol for in situ Sr isotope analyses in clinopyroxene: Quantifying mantle-derived inputs across the Sierra Nevada batholith."
2020 - Behnaz Hosseini, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA - "Reentrants: Reliable recorders of magma decompression rates?"
2020 - Hannah Tompkins, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA - "Understanding Zr stable isotope fractionation in magmatic environments: Insights from experimental systems."
2019 - Clementine Hamelin, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA - "Putting QuiG to the test: A high-resolution, micro-scale investigation of the Quartz-in-Garnet barometer in a progressive metamorphic sequence."
2019 - Marie Takach, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA - "Documenting magma mixing processes and timescales in tephra fall deposits: El Misti Volcano, Peru."
2018 - Shelby Nicole Johnston, University of Houston, Houston TX, USA - "The effects of alpha damage on He diffusion and closure temperatures in zircons."
2018 - Amy Catherine Moser, University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA, USA - "Directly dating high-temperature deformation: U-Pb resetting and dynamic recrystallization of titanite."
2017 - Allan Lerner, University of Oregon, Eugene OR, USA - "Developing a Volcanic Degassing Model for Mount St. Helens Volcano."
2017 - Jessica Hamilton, Monash University, Melbourne VIC, Australia - "Enhancing mineralogical trapping of CO2 within ultramafic mine tailings material."
2016 - Niklas Martin Stausberg, Aarhus University, Denmark - "Determination of Fe isotope fractionation factors between immiscible silicate melts under controlled laboratory conditions."
2016 - Margo Regier, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ, USA - "Quantifying the crust to atmosphere nitrogen flux through melt inclusions."
2015 - Huan Cui, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA - "Linking authigenic carbonate mineralization in marine sediments to the largest carbon isotope excursion in Earth history."
2015 - Emily Hernandez Goldstein, University of Texas, Austin TX, USA - "Trace element systematics of serpentinization."
2014 - Enrica Balboni, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN, USA - "Uranyl peroxide nanocluster formation from uranyl minerals"
2014 - Anthony Giuffre, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA - "Deciphering the influence of polysaccharide chemistry and ionic strength on the kinetics of calcium carbonate nucleation."
2014 - Stacy Elizabeth Phillips, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, NL, Canada - "High-spatial-resolution Sm-Nd and U-Pb isotope geochemistry of monazite in the Sweetwater Wash, Painted Rock, and North Piute plutons, Mojave Desert, California"
2014 - Michael Zanetti, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA - "Impact-induced Decomposition of Zircon and its Significance for Planetary Geology"
2013 - John G. Warden, University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA - "Microbial calcification in modern thrombolites"
2013 - Christopher James Spencer, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom - "Generation and Preservation of Continental Crust in the Grenville Orogeny: Constrained by U-Pb, Hf and O isotopes of zircon"
2012 - Jessica A Matthews, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA - "Testing the usefulness of oxygen isotope signatures from zircon grown in migmatites: Mt Stafford, central Australia"
2012 - Johnbull Otah Dickson, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA - "Characterization of Pertechnetate Aluminosilicate Mineral Phases and the Stability of Tc-99 to Ion Exchange in the presence of Competing Ions"
2011 - Kirsten F Hodge, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada - "Linking a magma's microstructure to a macroscopic description of its rheology"
2011 - Fan Wang, Purdue University, Purdue, IN, USA - "Salt mineralogy of the Atacama Desert, Chile: A terrestrial analog for aqueous derived mineral formation on Mars"
2010 - Neil Robert Bennett, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada - "The Metal-Silicate Partitioning Behaviour of Re and Pt: Implications for Terrestrial Accretion and Core Formation"
2010 - Jessica Lynn Till, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA - "Rutherford backscattering spectrometry studies of Fe chemical diffusion in plagioclase"
2009 - Christopher M. Fisher, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. Johns, NL, Canada - "Testing the use of synthetic minerals as isotopic reference materials: an example using hafnium in zircon"
2009 - Dongbo Wang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA - "Investigating a new pathway to carbonate mineralization and implications for Mg:Ca paleoenvironmental signatures"
2008 - Olaf Jakub Borkiewicz, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA - "Formation of precursor calcium phosphate phases during crystal growth of apatite and their role on the uptake of heavy metals and radionuclide"
2008 - Jennifer Bernadette Wright, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA - "Measurement of metamorphic kinetics through combined high resolution X-ray computed tomography (HRXCT), electron microanalysis (EMPA), and Sm-Nd isotopic dating"
2007 - Emily Catherine Pope, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA - "Fluid stable isotope signatures in hydrous alteration minerals"
2007 - Philip Skemer, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA - "Rheology and microstructural evolution of experimentally deformed orthoenstatite"
2006 - Angelo Antignano, Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA - "Rutile, Apatite, and Zircon Solubility in Silicate-bearing Fluids: Implications for HFSE and REE Mobility in Subduction Zones"
2006 - Gregory Dumond, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA - "What are we dating?: Linking zircon growth to metamorphic reactions in high-pressure mafic granulite"
2005 - Saumyaditya Bose, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA - "Combining studies in mineral-microbe interaction and nanomineralogy: Measuring and understanding the bio-reduction kinetics of Mn oxyhydroxides driven by Shewanella oneidensis"
2005 - Elizabeth R. Goeke, University of Iowa, Iowa city, IA, USA - "Quantitative textural modeling along a strong decompression path: Example from the Adula Nappe, Central Alps"
2004 - Kurt James Steffen, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA - "Modeling the interaction of metamorphism and deformation using numercial techniques"
2004 - Jennifer Mae Jackson, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA - "Sound velocities of aluminous MgSiO3 perovskite under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions using Brillouin spectroscopy and laser heating"
2003 - Andrew Madden, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA, USA - "Nanoscale Observations of Redox Reactions at Mineral Surfaces with Enzyme-Activated Atomic Force Microscopy"
2003 - Abigail Spieler, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA - "Mineralogic control on trace-element mobility in basalt aquifers"
2002 - Kevin James Davis, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA - "Resolving the Intertwined Roles of Temperature, Growth Rate and Growth Mechanism in Determining Mg-Calcite Compositions: Towards a Physical Baseline for the Mg/Ca Paleothermometer"
2002 - Robert Lester King, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA - "B systematics during progressive Si metasomatism of the mantle wedge"
2001 - Carlotta B. Chernoff, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA - "Distribution of trace metal contents in black shales and their metamorphic equivalents"
2001 - Kaye Sawyer Savage, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA - "Efflorescent uptake of trace oxyanions: effect on crystal structure and distribution"
2000 - Julia Ann Baldwin, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA - "Monazite paragenesis in granulite facies rocks of the Striding-Athabasca mylonite zone, northern Saskatchewan, Canada"
2000 - Cin-Ty Aelous Lee, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA - "The evolution of the continental lithosphere in tectonized regions: Re-Os isotopic mapping of the lithospheric mantle beneath southwestern North America".
1999 - Wim van Westrenen, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom - "Melt Partitioning of highly siderophile elements measured by laser ablation microprobe"
1998 - R. Lee Penn, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA - "Growth mechanisms and morphological evolution of nanocrystalline anatase"
1997 - Alkiviathes Meldrum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA - "Actinide and rare-earth diffusion properties in monazite and zircon"
1995 - Jed Leigh Mosenfelder, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA - "Kinetics of the coesite-quartz transformation"
1993 - Cambria Denison, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA - "Nucleation and growth in metamorphic rocks based on X-ray tomography and automated petrographic image analysis"
1991 - John C. Ayers, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA - "Solubility and partitioning of elements among accessory minerals in aqueous fluids"
1989 - Jillian F. Banfield, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA - "Effect of exsolution, oxidation, atomic ordering, and defect formation on the magnetic properties of Fe-Ti oxide minerals"
1989 - Nancy E. Brown, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA - "Order-disorder and enthalpies of mixing in hematite-ilmenite solid solution"
1987 - R. Chris Tacker, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA - "Calibration of the apatite volatile fugacity sensor"
1985 - Carol Russ Nabelek, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA - "Amphibole geothermometry"
1983 - Tracy N. Tingle, University of California, Davis, CA, USA - "The solubility and diffusivity of carbon in olivine"
1981 - William D. Carlson, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA - "Experimental Investigation of subsolidus equilibria in feldspathic peridotite and gabbro"