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Research Grants: Support from GSA Members

Encourages Field Research and Mentorship

Since the Geological Society of America’s Graduate Olivia Barbee, a Ph.D. student at Michigan Technological
Student Research Grants began in the early 1930s, this University, is another Lipman Research Award recipient. She says,
notable program has generated the largest sum of
research dollars available for geoscience graduate “The Lipman Research Award is providing me with a
students. In its first year, the program awarded US$47,600; in number of exciting research opportunities and is advancing
2016, GSA presented more than $741,000 in research grants to my growth as a scientist and professional. The award facilitated
359 graduate students. The average grant was $2,038 this year, my recent field work in the vast areas of Colorado that expose
and about 50% of applicants received grants. voluminous San Juan volcanic deposits and plutons. I was
fortunate to work in the field alongside several other petrolo-
While early beneficiaries were professionals, the focus shifted to gists and volcanologists from around the world, including
graduate-level recipients by 2001. Awardees are selected by GSA’s Peter Lipman himself. The research supported by this award
Committee on Research Grants. Funds are provided by GSA, the will be an important step in my career, as it will not only allow
GSA Foundation, GSA Divisions, ExxonMobil, and the National me to build upon my knowledge of silicic volcanic rocks and
Science Foundation, with a number of specialized awards advance current skills, but also explore and apply my skill sets
supported by generous GSA members who created endowed funds to the plutonic realm of igneous petrology. In addition, the
with the GSA Foundation. awarded research has given me the opportunity to mentor two
women undergraduate students and their projects at Michigan
These specialized research awards support specific donor- Tech, both in the field and in labs. Working with these
designated purposes, and these funds significantly impact the students on new research, learning new analytical techniques,
work of recipients like Katie Ardill: and joining forces with new faces from the field will be impor-
tant aspects of my budding career and are possible because of
“Receiving a GSA research grant and the Lipman Research this award.”
Award has enabled me to develop my skills as a field geologist,
mapping magmatic structures at the regional and mineral Please consider contributing to GSA’s Graduate Student
scale, and has allowed me to learn a new analytical technique Research Grants Program and help hundreds of students each
in the lab. It is a great honor to receive the Lipman Award, and year continue their path to geoscience careers and research.
for the scientific community to show their support and interest Go to www.gsafweb.org/donate/#fund=geostar or contact
in my research in the early stages of my career.” Bill Tortorici at btortorici@geosociety.org, +1-303-357-1007.

The Lipman Research Fund, established in 1993, is supported GSA TODAY | www.geosociety.org/gsatoday
by gifts from the Lipman Family Foundation. The fund promotes
and supports student research grants in volcanology and
petrology. The president of the Foundation, Peter W. Lipman, was
the recipient of a GSA research grant in 1965.

It is a clear path from receiving research support early in one’s
career, to developing an important area of personal interest, and
ultimately creating a mechanism to support emerging geologists
in specific interest areas. Lipman writes,

“The GSA student research grants have long impressed me Left: Research grant recipient Katie Ardill in the field. Right: Olivia Barbee
as uniquely worthy of support because no comparable source is and Chad Deering (her Ph.D. advisor) sampling ignimbrites in the Wheeler
available from any other earth-science organization. Such Geologic Area, La Garita Mountains, Colorado, USA.
support, even at modest levels, can be exceptionally helpful at a
critical point in a grad student’s development. Of great benefit
to my own career, such a grant (50 years ago!) paid for ten
chemical analyses of volcanic glass samples, at a time when
such analyses were rare treasures, determinable only by
specialized laborious wet-chemical methods. These analyses
became key data for a major early research publication.”

www.gsafweb.org

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