The Mildred E. Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant Program funds graduate research at NRS reserves. Graduate students from all UC campuses pursuing any discipline are eligible. Providing up to $3,000 each, the grants encourage students to establish independent research projects at reserves. Students gain experience submitting research proposals, writing progress reports, and managing a research budget. Awardees are invited to present their findings at the Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant Symposium, held every three years.
The program is named for UC Los Angeles botanist and professor Mildred E. Mathias, one of the founders of the NRS. Since its inception in 1988, more than 500 UC students have received nearly $950,000 in Mathias Grant funding.
Application information
Application information, eligibility, application procedures, and evaluation criteria for the 2023–2024 Mildred E. Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant Program can be found here.
The 2023–24 grant program application will be available August 4, 2023, with a submission deadline of October 20, 2023. Recipients will be notified on or around December 1, 2023.
Symposium
Recipients of Mildred E. Mathias Graduate Student Research Grants are invited to present their findings before peers at the NRS’s Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant Symposium. The weekend-long event is held every three years at one of the NRS’s reserves. The symposium is supported by the Kenneth S. Norris Endowment Fund for the California Environment, which was provided to the NRS by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Download a pdf of the 2023–24 Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant flyer.
Mathias Research Projects
Previous Mathias research projects have included works from across the academic spectrum. Award recipients have studied intertidal invertebrate responses to predators, plant ranges in the White Mountains, wasp ecology in the Mojave Desert, chipmunk range responses to climate change in the eastern Sierra, large-format digital photography across the reserve system, ecological factors affecting tick-borne diseases in California, and much more.