Graduate Student Awards and Fellowships

These grants provide support for graduate students to attend professional scientific meetings to present their research. Two sets of conference travel grants will be awarded per academic year. Applications for the 2024/2025 academic year are due October 7 (covering conferences from August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2025) and March 4th (covering conferences from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025). Biology graduate students and students from interdisciplinary programs whose advisor is on the Biology faculty are eligible. Awards are targeted towards students who have a dataset to present through either oral or poster presentation. One condition of the award is that you have had a committee meeting within the last year. This will be waived for 1st and 2nd year students. To apply, students complete the online form; their faculty advisor(s) will receive an email requesting comments. Students will not receive more than one travel grant per academic year. Any questions should be directed to the Graduate Committee (idavison@bu.edu for 2024/2025).

This award is given to a recent PhD student for the outstanding doctoral dissertation completed in the Department of Biology. Frank A. Belamarich joined the BU Biology Department in 1963 as an assistant professor where he quickly gained international recognition for his research in the field of comparative hemostasis, the process of blood clotting. Throughout his tenure at BU he was a popular teacher of a core course in cell biology which he developed.  Belamarich maintained research laboratories in Boston as well as at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole in Falmouth, MA as part of the BU Marine Program.

Recent Belamarich Award Recipients
2024 Anna Berenson
2023 Hannah Aichelman
2022 Leah Williams and Karina Scavo Lord
2021 Tina Barbasch
2020 Ashley Penvose
2019 Jesse Delia
2018 Kristina Cohen
2017 James “JP” Gilbert
2016 Cassidy D’Aloia
2015 Ysabel Giraldo

This award complements the Belamarich Award, and is given to support an outstanding PhD student through the dissertation writing stage.

Recent Belamarich Dissertation Writing Award Recipients
2025 Abigail Robinson
2024 Amanda Pinheiro
2023 Brandon Güell
2022 Nicola Kriefall
2021 Isabella Muratore

This award is given to a recent MS student for excellence in scholarship and research accomplishment during a master’s thesis in the Department of Biology.

Recent Denton Award Recipients
2024 Victoria Zdanowicz
2023 So Young Bae
2022 Sarah Speroff
2021 Laura Angley
2020 Melissa Zarate
2019 Laura DiRoberts

This award provides support for graduate students conducting research in marine science with a focus on research related to ecology, evolution, or behavior. The Economakis Award is made possible by the generosity of Alistair Economakis (CAS’94, GRS’00), an alum of the BU Marine Program. Over the course of his education and career, he has conducted extensive research in his specialized fields of the Greek seashore as well as shark aggregations.

Recent Economakis Fellowship Recipients
2025 JK Da-Anoy
2024 E Schlatter
2023 Joanna Lee
2022 Lili Vizer

This award provides support for high-achieving women and female students majoring in Biology. The award was established in 2001 in honor of Dr. Marion Kramer who earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Boston University in 1963 and went on to a long and satisfying career in biology and medicine.

Recent Kramer Scholarship Recipients
2025 Sabrina Kistler
2024 Kathryn Atherton and Jillian Ness
2023 Hannah Axten, Alanna Carey, and Yuan Tian
2022 Hannah Aichelman and Nahomie Rodriguez Sastre
2021 Nicola Kriefall, Lisa Kretsge, and Zoey Werbin
2020 Tina Barbasch, Shawna Henry, and Diane Lebo
2019 Katey Lesneski
2018 Ashley Penvose
2017 Elizabeth Burmester
2016 Darcy Gordon

This award provides support for EBE PhD candidates who have completed the qualifying exam, with a preference for those conducting field research in the award year. The award was established in 2015 in recognition and appreciation of Professor Thomas H. Kunz’s mentorship. One of the world’s leading authorities on the biology of bats, Professor Thomas H. Kunz, has for the past 40+ years been an inspiring teacher to thousands of undergraduates, an enthusiastic proponent for bats and science in the public arena, and an exceptional mentor to dozens of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty. His current and former graduate students established this award to serve as a lasting legacy of Tom’s contributions at BU and beyond. Learn more about Dr. Kunz and how you can support this award.

Recent Kunz Award Recipients
2025 Isabel Novick
2024 Abigail Robinson
2023 Stephen Caron
2022 Maria Jose Salazar Nicholls
2021 Brandon Güell
2020 Robin Francis
2019 Javier Mendez Narvaez
2018 Rebecca Branconi
2017 Stephen Decina
2016 Jesse Delia

This award provides support for Neurobiology or GPN PhD candidates who have completed the qualifying exam and made significant contributions to their field. Brenton R. Lutz was the first person to receive an MD/PhD at Boston University, receiving his PhD in 1916.  He later became a Professor and Chairman of BU’s Department of Biology. Dr. Lutz also gave the first University Lecture at BU on December 11, 1950 “The Living Blood Vessels.”  The University Lecture was established at Boston University in 1950 for the purpose of honoring members of the faculty engaged in outstanding research.

Recent Lutz Award Recipients
2025 Guangmei Liu
2024 Alejandro Rondón Ortiz
2023 Rhushikesh Phadke
2022 Yuan Tian
2021 Margaret O’Connor
2020 Isabella Muratore
2019 Shawna Henry
2018 Ashley Comer
2017 Johnny Elguero
2016 Gloria DeWalt

This award provides support to be used to attend a conference for candidates who have completed the qualifying exam in the fields of endrocinology and/or regulatory biology. The award was established by the late I. Alden Macchi, Professor and former Interim Chairman in the Department of Biology. Dr. Macchi received his PhD in Endocrinology from BU in 1954. Professor Macchi’s research contributed, among other things, many important observations regarding the mechanisms of steroid hormone biosynthesis in the adrenal glands.

Recent Macchi Award Recipients
2023 Amanda Pinheiro
2022 Cameron Dixon
2021 Caroline Fleming
2019 Ashley Comer
2018 Kellen Andrilenas
2017 Ashley Penvose
2016 Alla Yalonetskaya
2015 Rama Krishna Simhadri

This award provides a one-semester Research Assistantship to a continuing Biology MS student who stands out in their field of research. 

Recent Master’s Research Award Recipients 
2024 Charley Mitchell

This award provides support for a CM or MCBB PhD candidate who has completed the qualifying exam and who has made significant contributions to their field. Charles Terner was a Professor of Biology at Boston University for over 20 years before he retired in 1985. Dr. Terner specialized in biochemistry and focused his research on the metabolic properties of male reproductive cells. The award was established in his memory after he passed away in 1998.

Recent Terner Award Recipients
2025 KathrynAnn Odamah
2024 Jaice Rottenberg
2023 Alexandra Lion
2022 Heather Hook
2021 Leah Williams
2020 Margaret O’Connor
2019 Natalie Vaisman
2018 Katelyn Mansfield
2017 Yuda Huo
2016 Cody Desjardins

These awards provides support for graduate students conducting research in marine science. Patricia Warren (the granddaughter of BU’s 1st President, William Fairfield Warren) established this fund in 1990 to support graduate students in the BU Marine Program (BUMP). Guy McLeod was Patricia’s brother-in-law and the long-time director of research at the New England Aquarium. He was a marine biologist, whose scholarship focused on the role of iron, vanadium, and other metal ions on the physiological ecology of marine animals. Learn more about this award.

Recent Warren-McLeod 12-Month Fellowship Recipients
2024 Caroline Fleming
2023 Nia Bartolucci 
2022 James Fifer
2021 Robin Francis
2020 Rebecca Branconi
2019 Emily Chau
2018 Tina Barbasch
2017 Katelyn Mansfield
2016 Kathryn Lesneski
2015 Daphne Schatzberg

Recent Warren-McLeod Summer Fellowship Recipients
2025 Jacob Jaskiel, Peter Schroedl, and Lili Vizer
2024 Mu-Han Chen and Maria Ingersoll
2023 Morgan Bennett-Smith, Lucila Bloemendaal, JK Da-Anoy, and Joshua Harringmeyer
2022 Joshua Aguirre
2021 E Schlatter and Daniel Wuitchik
2020 Nicola Kriefall, Claudia Mazur, Karina Scavo, Leah Williams, Yiyang Xu
2019 Nicola Kriefall, Tina Barbasch, Robin Francis, James Fifer, Claudia Mazur
2018 Nicholas Ray, Emily Chua, Karina Scavo
2017 David Minkoff, Nicholas Ray, and Natchar Naowarojna
2016 Rebecca Branconi, Elizabeth Burmester, David Minkoff, Katelyn Mansfield, and Karina Scavo

This award provides support for MS and PhD students in Marine Biology. Dana Wright graduated with an MA degree from the BU Marine Program in the summer of 2000. This award was established by her parents to honor Dana’s life and her love of marine biology.

Recent Wright Fellowship Recipients
2025 Ninon Martinez
2024 Morgan Bennett-Smith
2023 E Schlatter
2022 Daniel Wuitchik
2021 James Fifer and Brenna Stallings
2020 Hannah Aichelman
2019 Rebecca Branconi
2018 Robin Francis
2016 James Garner and Adrienne Lohe

This award offers one $1,000 Travel Grant to a Biology Post-doc, to present their research at a professional scientific meeting. This award has been made possible by Biology Alumna Dr. Aruoriwo M Oboh-Weilke. You can read about Dr. Oboh on our Alumni page. Applications for the 2024 Oboh-Weilke Postdoctoral Travel Award are due March 11, 2024, covering travel between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024. To apply, applicants should complete and submit the online application. Please consult with your advisor about funds available from your lab before applying. When applicants submit their applications, faculty advisors will automatically receive an email asking them to approve the application and submit additional comments by email, including information about availability of funds. Any questions should be directed to Jenny Bhatnagar.

Recent Oboh-Weilke Award Recipients
2019 Yarden Cohen
2018 John Majoris

The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences offers merit-based scholarships to competitive incoming master’s students. Scholarships may be renewed in subsequent years for MS students who continue to stand out in their studies.

These fellowships provide a stipend and scholarship for students to focus primarily on their degree coursework with no departmental research or teaching responsibilities. These include:

• Dean’s Fellowships
• Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship
• Whitney M. Young Jr. Fellowship
• Trainee Fellowships

A teaching fellowship at Boston University is a kind of apprenticeship, providing an opportunity for graduate students to gain classroom experience under the close supervision of the faculty members who have the formal responsibility for the courses to which the teaching fellows are assigned. Your obligation in this fellowship would include instructional duties assigned by your department and participation in a specific course in the pedagogy of your discipline. Instructional and other duties total approximately 20 hours per week.

Doctoral Research Fellowships provide a stipend and scholarship for exceptionally qualified students in return for research work done for the department. Your obligation in this fellowship would include research duties assigned by your department that total no more than 20 hours per week.

The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, using funds from alumni gifts, has established a fellowship program, Graduate Research Abroad Fellowships, to support foreign-based research by doctoral students whose field-based or archival research requires an extended period of residence in another country or countries.

In an effort to encourage PhD students to seek out new opportunities for professional development, The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences has established the Graduate Internship Funding Program (GIF). This program will fund unpaid internships to aid PhD students in enhancing their academic and professional experience.

Graduate students in either their first- or second-year are encouraged to apply for these prestigious three-year fellowships. NSF Fellowship applications are due in November of each year. For applications and instructions visit the NSF website.

Our Recent NSF GRFP Recipients & Honorable Mentions
2025 Honorable Mentions: Alejandra Castillo Cieza; Anne Curtis, Emma Daily, Abigail Fowler, and Sara Parker
2024 Recipients: Kristen Harder, Dylan Mankel, and Elif Ozsen; Honorable Mentions: Catherine Gill, Victoria Guarino, and Yu Yang
2023 Recipients: Erin Frates, Annabel Hughes, and Renata Serio; Honorable Mention: Shalom Entner
2022 Recipient: Emerson Conrad-Rooney; Honorable Mentions: Christine Carroll and Benjamin Recchia
2021 Recipients: Maria Ingersoll and Cheta Siletti; Honorable Mention: Kathryn Atherton

GSO offers two types of travel awards, a Presentation Grant and a Research Grant. For application instructions and deadlines visit the GSO website.

GWISE offers the PDG program to help members benefit from professional development opportunities in the Boston area and beyond. The PDG Program will provide funding for registration fees and other expenses associated with participating in professional development events. For application instructions and more information visit the GWISE website.