This award will support participation by graduate students and early career scientists in the 2013V.M. Goldschmidt Conference in Florence, Italy, during August 25-30, 2013. This travel grant will enable the best and brightest students from the US and US Territories, students who might otherwise be unable to attend due to financial constraints at their home institutions, to benefit from all the advantages this meeting has to offer at this turning point in their respective careers. Applications will be collected from the students, then reviewed and ranked by a volunteer committee of scientists. The Geochemical Society is contributing $10,000 so that a total of 40 students, who are presenting their work at the conference, will receive $1,250 each toward travel expenses.
The Goldschmidt conference is the premier venue for geochemistry. Thematic issues to be addressed at the conference span a broad range of sub-disciplines in low- and high- temperature geochemistry, including cosmochemistry, mantle geochemistry, early and deep earth, continental crust, interfacial geochemistry, subduction, evolution of the early Earth's environment, volcanoes and hazards, energy resources, ores, climate changes, atmospheric geochemistry, weathering and tectonics, anthropogenic pollutants, biogeochemistry, analytical and computational geochemistry, hydrogeochemistry, mineralogy and mineral physics. In addition to oral and poster presentation sessions, students will have an opportunity to participate in field trips and workshops associated with the conference.
This award was used to subsidize the cost for students to attend and present their work at the 2013 V.M. Goldschmidt Conference held in Florence, Italy. The Goldschmidt Conference is the largest annual international scientific conference in geochemistry. The 2013 Goldschmidt Conference attracted 4183 attendees representing more than 20 nations. Seventy-three students studying geochemistry at U.S. institutions applied to the student travel grant program, which was advertised on the conference website. Students submitted a short application form, a one-page resume, their accepted conference abstract, a short essay describing the significance of their research and a letter of recommendation from a faculty mentor. A panel of twenty-three experts evaluated the applications; each application was read and assigned a numerical score by at least three difference reviewers. From the pool of seventy-three applicants, forty-three awardees were selected and received a travel grant from this award together with additional funds contributed by the Geochemical Society. Each student finalist received $1250 to use towards the cost of registration, lodging and travel to the conference site. The student travel grant recipients came from 29 institutions in 21 different states. Award recipients were asked to fill out a survey regarding their experiences at the conference. Student grantees generally found the conference to be exceptionally valuable, allowing them to share their research, participate in valuable networking activities, and learn more about the cutting-edge developments in their disciplines.
