This document discusses various fellowship, award, and international opportunities available to graduate students. It covers 1) international research opportunities through programs like EAPSI and Fulbright that provide funding for students to conduct research abroad, 2) conference awards to present work at professional meetings, and 3) opportunities for professional growth beyond research like future faculty programs. The document provides details on specific programs and offers application tips.

1. Fellowships, Awards, and International
Opportunities as a Graduate Student
Markita Landry
2012

2. Overview
1) International Research Opportunities
• Make the most of your graduate school years!
2) Conference & Travel Awards
• Rely on yourself to present your work
3) Professional Growth Beyond the Bench
• Unconventional approaches and opportunities in graduate
school pay huge dividends later
• Stand out from other advanced degree-holders

3. Overview
1) International Research Opportunities
2) Conference Awards
3) Professional Growth Beyond the Bench

4. • Japan
• China
• Korea
• Taiwan
Program Duration: "All institutes last approximately 8
weeks from June to August. Japan lasts approximately
10 weeks from June to August."
Benefits:
- $ 5,000 stipend.
- International round-trip airfare to the host location.
- Abroad living expenses by foreign co-sponsoring
organizations
- Orientation to the science environment and culture
of each location."
NSF EAPSI
• Singapore
• New Zealand
• Australia
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5284

6. • In 2009: 50% acceptance rate
• Japan, New Zealand, Australia
• Correspondence with host PI strongly recommended
• Consider continuing your thesis project abroad
Application Tips
• Technique developed in Osaka continued at my home
graduate institution
• Turned into a multi-year collaboration
http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/12/25/nar.gks1345

8. • Austria
• Czech Republic
Who Should Apply?
• Enrolled MS and PhD students in sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science,
Engineering, Environmental Science, Mathematics)
• US Citizens and Permanent Residents
Award Benefits
• Fellowship award of $2,000
• Round-trip international airfare to Central Europe
• Living costs (room and board) for 8 weeks
• Health and accident insurance
• Four-day academic and cultural orientation in Budapest, Hungary
NSF CESRI
• Poland
• Slovakia
• Germany
• Hungary

9. • The world (55 countries)
Fulbright Fellowships
Participants: Students, Scholars, Teachers, Professionals
Benefits: Most Fulbright grants are fully-funded; benefits include roundtrip
transportation to the host country, monthly maintenance for the length of the grant, full
or partial tuition (if applicable), accident/sickness coverage, and the cost of mandatory
Fulbright orientation and enrichment activities.
Duration: A few weeks to a year

10. Research Training & Travel Grant
• Up to $15,000 for domestic or
international travel
• Acquire new technique
• Facilitate a collaboration
• $2,500 grant to spend 2 weeks
in Boston
• New collaboration
• You are the PI of your own
proposal
• This got me my post-doc!
http://www.bwfund.org/grant-programs/biomedical-sciences/collaborative-research-travel-
grants

11. Travel Awards: How to Guarantee a Win
Application Tips
• Show enthusiasm for collaborative/interdisciplinary research
• Establish communication with host PI prior to application
• Include correspondence and letters of support of your host
PI in your application
• Emphasize how your visit will benefit your research
• Bonus: Mention how you visit will benefit your host lab

12. International Research Opportunities
EAPSI (East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute)
• http://www.nsfsi.org/
CESRI (Central Europe Summer Research Institute)
• http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/CESRI
Fullbright
• http://fulbright.state.gov/
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Research Training Grant
• http://www.bwfund.org/pages/481/Collaborative-Research-Travel-Grants/
Application Links

13. Overview
1) International Research Opportunities
2) Conference Awards
3) Professional Growth Beyond the Bench

14. Conference Awards
Professional organization meetings
• ACS, APS, BPS, ASCB…
• Some will have travel awards for
students
• Funding through school or
department
General science meetings
• Less-well publicized
• Put together by small group of people
or private foundation
• Generally come with guaranteed
funding if accepted

15. Professional Organizations
Gordon Research conference minority travel grant - $600
• http://www.grc.org/diversity.aspx?page=2
Biophysical society meeting travel award (general & minority) - $500/$1000
• http://www.biophysics.org/2013meeting/TravelAwards/MACTravelAwards/tabid/3643/Default.as
px
American Society for Cell Biology minority affairs travel award - $ 1400
• https://www.ascb.org/meetings/Forms/MAC_awards/mactravel1.cfm
WCC/Eli Lilly ACS travel award - Variable
• Funding for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral female chemists
• http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/
American Physical Society student travel award - $1000
• http://www.aps.org/programs/education/undergrad/students/futurephysics/travelgrants.cfm
AIChE – Has 2 travel awards: one for women, one for minorities ($500)
• https://www.aiche.org/community/awards/womens-initiatives-committees-wic-travel-award-
program
• http://www.aiche.org/community/awards/janice-lumpkin-travel-award
Conference Travel Awards

16. Conference Awards
Professional organization meetings
• ACS, APS, BPS, ASCB…
• Some will have travel awards for
students
• Funding through school or
department
General science meetings
• Less-well publicized
• Put together by small group of people
or private foundation
• Generally come with guaranteed
funding if accepted

17. General Science Meetings
PASI (Pan-American Advanced Studies Institutes Program)
• A 1.5-week conference (usually in Central or South America) that
brings together researchers from the USA and from Central/South
America
• Talks are in English, but the goal is to network and form
collaborations between scientists across the Americas.
• http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5327
Scalable, Functional Nanomaterials, Costa Rica
Process Modeling for Energy and Sustainability, Brazil
New Frontiers in Seismological Research: Earth Structure, Ecuador
Tropical ecology & Biogeochemistry, the Lowland Amazon, Perú
Electronic Properties of Complex Systems, Colombia
Frontiers in Imaging Science, Colombia
Scientific computing in the Americas: massive parallelism, Chile
Volcanic Hazards in Pacific Latin America, Costa Rica
Concepts and Model Organisms in Regenerative Biology, Chile
Dynamics and Chemistry of the Upper Atmosphere, Argentina
Rare Nuclear Isotopes, Brazil
Expanding the Frontier in Tropical, Costa Rica
Function and Regulation of the Cytoskeleton, Brazil
Topics in Theoretical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Mexico
PASI Quantum Gravity, Mexico
Dynamics and Control of Marine Vehicles, Colombia
on Climate Change and Hazards in the Americas, Panama
Computational Science and Engineering, Venezuela
Energy, Water, and Global Change, Mexico
Modeling in Computational Science and Engineering, Venezuela
Nano-Bio: The Intersection of Bio, Condensed Matter, Puerto Rico
Surfaces, Interfaces, and Catalysis, Brazil

18. PASI in Scalable, Functional Nanomaterials – Costa Rica

19. Conference Awards: General Science Meetings
Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates
• 1-week meeting in Lindau, Germany
• Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Interdisciplinary
• ~1000 young researcher participants
• ~75 Nobel Laureates
• http://www.orau.org/lindau/default.shtml
(U.S)
• www.lindau-nobel.org/ (Non-US)

21. • Exchange knowledge of world class nanoscience and
nanobioscience between graduate students from
institutions worldwide
• 1 week of lectures on nano(bio)sciences
• 2 weeks of hands-on experimental and computational
training supervised by the host peers
Junior Nanotechnology Network (JNN)
“A Self-Organized PhD Student Exchange Program”
http://www.cens.de/international/exchange-programs/jnn/

23. • Global Health Initiative
• 2 weeks in Accra & Cape Coast, Ghana
• Hospital & healthcare center visits
• University & research lab visits
GHI in Ghana
http://globalhealth.illinois.edu/

25. Overview
1) International Research Opportunities
2) Conference Awards
3) Professional Growth Beyond the Bench

26. Virginia Tech future faculty
http://www.provost.vt.edu/faculty_affairs/faculty_recruitment/future_faculty/future_
faculty.html
Rice University future faculty
http://advance.rice.edu/
NC State U future faculty
http://oied.ncsu.edu/oied/diversity/BFF.php
MIT Chemistry
http://web.mit.edu/chemistry/www/diversityworkshop.html
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/88/i04/8804notw8.html
Future Faculty Programs
Want to be a faculty? Visit prospective schools before you apply and get
your foot in the door!

27. 2010 Future Faculty @ NC State University

28. Hesitant?
“Traveling will delay my graduation time”
Perhaps, but not if you plan your abroad research well. A well-though out research proposal
that is an extension of your thesis work can actually expedite your thesis completion!
Joining a foreign lab for a few months through EAPSI, CESRI, or Fulbright can give you new
tools and a new perspective on your work.
“I’m worried my adviser won’t let me participate”
Place emphasis on how this will benefit your adviser’s research group. You will be funded by
the program (free labor!) while advancing your thesis work. Make sure you have an idea of
the research you want to do abroad, how it ties into the research your adviser wants you to
complete, and have a compelling reason to do this work in your host lab. Good reason: the
host lab is an expert in a technique that can help me get results I need. Bad reason: I just
want to travel.
“I don’t speak a foreign language”
You don’t need to! The worst that will happen is that you’ll find out you’ve been doing your
laundry with dish detergent. For better or worse, most research around the world is
conducted and published in English. So, even if your host country’s native language isn’t
English, many of your labmates will be able to converse with you.

29. In Summary…
• Grad school: Something between school and a career
• It is your responsibility to produce research output
• But you also have the freedom to choose how to achieve
your research goals

30. https://sites.google.com/site/markitalandry/graduate-fellowships
For More Information…
Graduate fellowships:
Post-doctoral Fellowships:
https://sites.google.com/site/markitalandry/postdoc-fellowships
https://sites.google.com/site/markitalandry/future-faculty-programs
Professional development programs: