Graduate Student Awards
The department offers several merit-based supplementary scholarships and awards to outstanding graduate students. All awards are independent, and student may be nominated/apply for multiple awards. **Applications are due each year in approximately late March. These awards include:
- Aureal T. Cross Endowed Graduate Fellowship
- Neal Research Award for Graduate Students
- Pringle Academic Achievement Award for Graduate Students
- Graduate Student Excellence in MS Thesis
- Graduate Student Excellence in PhD Dissertation
- Graduate Teaching Award
The Pringle, MS, PhD, and teaching awards are effectively cash awards, whereas the Neal and Cross awards are research funding awards.
See below for information regarding required nomination materials. The deadline for submission for all awards in 2026 is Monday, March 2 5:00PM. Materials should be sent directly to the Graduate Director, Allen McNamara at allenmc@msu.edu with Graduate Secretary, Rachell Pickell (pickellr@msu.edu) CC'ed. Allen will send you a confirmation email shortly after receiving your materials — please inquire with Allen if you do not get confirmation from Allen within a few days after submission.
Earth and Environmental Science Graduate Travel Grant applications are solicited twice each year. Fall semester applications (e.g. for AGU Fall meeting) will be due in early October, and Spring applications will be due approximately the middle of February.
Graduate Student Research Funding Awards
Aureal T. Cross Endowed Graduate Fellowship
and
Neal Research Award for Graduate Students
The Graduate Committee is soliciting research proposals for both the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Neal Research Award and the Aureal T. Cross Endowed Graduate Fellowship. The amount of this award depends upon the research proposal budget, the number of nominations, and the competitiveness of your nomination package. We anticipate giving out 3 Neal Awards at about $1800 each and 4 Cross Awards at about $2000 each. For the Cross awards, preference will be given to students whose interests are in paleobiology, stratigraphy, or related disciplines. This award group is independent of the other award groups (a student can be nominated/apply for multiple awards). Typically, students self-nominate for this award, but faculty may also nominate students.
The nomination packet needs to include (in this order):
- A brief proposal justifying the research needs for the funds [target length: 250-500 words] (written by the student).
- Budget for the research funds [target length: less than 1 page] (written by the student).
- A brief statement of professional goals [target length: ~250 words] (written by the student).
- A brief statement of current status. Current status means: year in program and accomplishments (milestones) to date in terms of degree requirements (e.g., graduate committee approved, orals and written comprehensives taken, etc.) [target length: a short paragraph] (written by the student).
- A nomination letter that demonstrates the student’s academic achievements and development of professional goals [target length: less than a page] (written by the student if self-nominating or by the faculty member nominating the student).
- A current MSU course transcript (i.e., the downloaded unofficial copy from MSU) (provided by the student).
- Academic CV of the student (provided by the student).
The award money is given in the Fall 2026 and therefore, the student must be enrolled at that time. The nomination package must be a single pdf file (with materials in the order prescribed above). The nomination packet must be titled: Neal&Cross-2026-StudentLastName-StudentFirstName.pdf
Graduate Student Recognition Awards
Pringle Academic Achievement Scholarship for Graduate Students
The Graduate Affairs Committee is soliciting nominations for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pringle Academic Achievement Scholarship. This award is typically around $1,500 each, for up to 4 recipients. This award is independent of the other awards (a student can be nominated/apply for multiple awards). Typically, students self-nominate for this award, but faculty may also nominate students.
The nomination packet needs to include (in this order):
- A brief statement of professional goals [target length: ~250 words] (written by the student).
- A brief statement of current status. Current status means: year in program and accomplishments (milestones) to date in terms of degree requirements (e.g., graduate committee approved, orals and written comprehensives taken, etc.) [target length: a short paragraph] (written by the student).
- A brief nomination letter that demonstrates the student’s academic achievements and development of professional goals [target length: less than a page] (written by the student if self-nominating or by the faculty member nominating the student).
- A current MSU course transcript (i.e., the downloaded unofficial copy from MSU) (provided by the student).
- Academic CV of the student (provided by the student).
The award money is given in the Fall 2026 and therefore, the student must be enrolled at that time. The nomination package must be a single pdf file (with materials in the order prescribed above). The nomination packet must be titled: Pringle-2026-StudentLastName-StudentFirstName.pdf.
Graduate Student Excellence in MS Thesis and PhD Dissertation Awards
Only faculty can make these nominations.
The MS Thesis and PhD Dissertation awards are for completed (defended) theses and dissertations. Admittedly, the March deadline for these awards is not ideal because many people graduating this year will not defend until April or May (or perhaps even summer), but we need to decide on these awards in March, to properly prepare materials for the awards ceremony. Students and former students eligible for this award will have defended their thesis or dissertation between January 1st, 2025 (last year) and March 2, 2026 (this year’s deadline). Students defending after March 3, 2025 should be nominated for next year’s awards. The MS Thesis and PhD Dissertation awards are honorary with no cash prize allotted.
The nomination packet needs to include:
- a nomination letter that highlights why you consider the thesis/dissertation to be particularly meritorious. Make sure the nomination letter includes the advisor’s name, names of committee members, the defense date, graduation semester, and title of the thesis/dissertation. The nomination letter should be no longer than 1 full page. Nominations can be (but don’t need to be) signed by multiple faculty (e.g., the student’s committee).
- Academic CV of the student
The nomination form should be titled either:
MS-Thesis-2026-StudentLastName-StudentFirstName.pdf
PhD-Dissertation-2026-StudentLastName-StudentFirstName.pdf
Graduate Student Teaching Awards
Only faculty can make these nominations.
The TA award is typically around $750. The TA award does not apply to any single semester of teaching; it is attributed to the accumulation of teaching service put forth by the student throughout their graduate career. The student may receive more than 1 nomination (i.e., from multiple faculty) for the TA award.
The nomination packet is simply a nomination letter that highlights why you consider the student’s teaching service to be particularly noteworthy. Please make sure to include the courses that the student has been a TA for throughout their service to the department. The nomination letter should be no longer than 1 full page.
The nomination form should be titled: TA-2026-StudentLastName-StudentFirstName.pdf
Graduate Student Travel Awards
Earth and Environmental Science Alumni Graduate Student International/Domestic Travel Award
This $5000 award fully funds students to participate in an international (or internationally-attended domestic) academic meeting anywhere in the world. This award is now included in all doctoral graduate student recruitment packages and so no application is necessary. If you have questions about the award in your recruitment package, please contact the Grad Director, Allen McNamara (allenmc@msu.edu) and/or the Grad Secretary, Rachel Pickell (pickellr@msu.edu).
Earth and Environmental Science Alumni Graduate Student Supplemental Travel Awards
The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences provides supplemental travel funding to graduate students to present their research at scientific conferences. These funds are generously provided by our alumni. The amount of funding provided is dependent upon the current availability of department funds and the number of awards given. In recent years, this amount has typically been between $700 and $800.
There are 2 calls per year: Fall and Spring. You can apply to each call (twice a year).
- Fall Call: Due October 1, every year
- Spring Call: Due March 1, every year
Awards will be provided as reimbursement toward your conference travel.
Note on Timing: Please allow 2 months from the travel award submission deadline before claiming your reimbursement. I recommend submitting for the Fall Call if your meeting is between Dec 1 through May 1 and submitting to the Spring Call if your meeting is between May 1 through Dec 1.
In addition to completing this application process, you must be a student in good standing to quality for these funds. Good standing means you are meeting the requirements for your degree such as reaching your milestones in a timely fashion, having annual committee meetings, and turning in your annual review materials. If you are delinquent in any requirements at the time your travel is to happen, you will not be awarded these funds.
Recipients of the Travel Award are expected to support the department activities associated with the travel, if applicable (e.g., support department outreach, recruiting, and development activities at a conference). Furthermore, recipients may be asked to provide a short summary of their trip for use in the alumni newsletter, department webpage, and the like.
Please submit your application as a single PDF file, named: YourLastName-YourFirstName-(YourAdvisorsName)-YEAR-TravelAward-FallorSpring.pdf
Please email the completed application (as a single pdf) to the Grad Director, Allen McNamara (allenmc@msu.edu), by 5:00 PM on the due date (or the first business day after the due date if the due date falls doesn’t fall on a business day). Please make sure to CC the Grad Secretary, Rachel Pickell (pickellr@msu.edu). The Grad Director will reply, confirming that they received the funding application. If I do not reply to confirm receipt within a few days, please let me know.
You can apply to each funding call (Fall and Spring) for up to two awards per year. However, you cannot receive more than 1 EES Alumni Travel Award for a given trip.
We would also like to draw your attention to travel funding provided by the Graduate School. This can only be awarded once per student career, and the amount has recently been raised to $1000. We encourage all EES graduate students to try to get Graduate School Travel funding sometime during their program. The success rate is high.
If you apply for the Graduate School Travel Award, you should make sure to also apply for the EES Alumni Travel Award at the same time, as the Graduate School will expect an EES match. You can (and should) receive both an EES Alumni Travel Award and a Graduate School Travel Award for the same trip.
Here is the link to the Graduate School Travel award: https://grad.msu.edu/travel