Department of Biology

Research Grants and Awards

Undergraduate Awards

  • Samantha Palace Congratulations to Sam Palace, this year’s recipient of the David Potter Prize for Excellence in Biology. The prize was established in 1979 by Dr. and Mrs. Warren Litsky (Class of 1945) and is awarded to an outstanding biology major at the beginning of their senior year. In addition to the Potter Prize, Sam was also a recipient of a Barth Summer Internship Award this past summer and spent her time working for a non-profit conservation group in Friday Harbor, WA. You can read more about Sam’s summer experience here


  • Katherine O'Brien '07
    has received a summer research fellowship from the Eastern Alliance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics for her proposed research on evolution in stickleback fish.

Faculty Grants & Awards

  • David Hibbett
    2009: National Science Fundation Systematics and Population Biology (DSH, PI).Title: MSB/PEET: polyPEET- enhancing taxonomic expertise in the Polyporales. Funding period Jan.1,2010-Dec.31,2014.DEB- 0933081. $750,000
    2009: National Science Foundation Integrative Organismal Systems (DSH, PI). Title: Collaborative Research: Fungal Life History Strategies and Evolution: Insights from Isotopic Measurements and Phylogenetic Analysis. Funding period Apr. 15, 2009-Sept. 30, 2011. IOS-0843278. $60,000.
  • Linda Kennedy
    2009: Nation Institutes of Health, National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (LMK, PI). Title: Experience induced changes in taste sensitivities for sweeteners and monosodium glutamate. Funding period July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2012. R15DC009042. $216,680.
  • Denis Larochelle
    2009: Nuclea Biomarkers, LLC (DAL, PI). Title: Dictyostelium-based screen for novel drugs. Funding period June 1, 2009-May 31, 2010; renewable for three years. $125,000 per year.
  • Tim Lyerla
    2008:"Lung Fibrosis in an Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome Mouse Model"
    National Institutes of Health Academic Research Enhancement Award of $223,500 (2008-2010)
  • Susan Foster & John Baker
    2005:"Ancestral plasticity and mating system evolution in the stickleback radiation"
    National Science Foundation grant of $574,548 (2005-2009)