Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Travel Awards

Undergraduate students who have completed NSF-sponsored REU projects in the areas of ecology, evolution, or environmental science are encouraged to present their research in a poster session at the Ecological Society of America (ESA's) 91^st Annual Meeting being held in Memphis, Tennessee. 

These students are also invited to apply for an NSF-funded travel award, which will support the participation of 20 competitively-selected REU poster participants at this meeting.  Each successful travel award winner will be funded at a rate of $1,000 U.S. to help defray the total costs of round-trip airfare to the meeting, food and lodging, and ESA abstract and registration fees.  All applicants must have performed their research either through an REU Site, or through an REU supplement to a regular NSF grant.  Students who will be initiating their REU research in summer 2006 must wait to apply for the summer 2007 meeting.   Abstracts that address the meeting theme, “Icons and Upstarts in Ecology,” are especially encouraged, but submissions may be from any area of ecology.    

Click here to download the application form for this travel award.  Please fill out the application electronically; save the completed application file as ESA 2006 REU your name (e.g., ESA 2006 REU Val Smith.doc); and then send the completed application file directly to Dr. Val H. Smith, University of Kansas, by e-mail at vsmith@ku.edu by May 1, 2006 .  A short e-mail mentor's letter of recommendation to this same address is also required for each award applicant.  Applicants must not send this travel award application to the ESA web site, because they will not process it!   The applications will be competitively evaluated by an ad hoc ESA /REU Travel Award Review and Selection Committee, and the 20 successful student applicants will be contacted independently by e-mail to confirm their intent to attend ESA 's Annual Meeting.  Successful applicants will be contacted by June 4, 2006. 

Interested applicants might also consider clicking the box on the meeting registration form to register as a potential student volunteer at the meeting.  In return for providing a modest degree of help at the meeting (such as assisting with room lights), ESA will reimburse a small portion of the meeting costs for each volunteer selected.