Cole Research Grant Awards

The 2022 deadline for applications is 1 February.

W. Storrs Cole Memorial Research Award

The W. Storrs Cole Memorial Research Award was established to support research in invertebrate micropaleontology. It will be given each year to a GSA Member or Fellow between 30 and 65 years of age who has published one or more significant papers on micropaleontology. Funds cannot be used for work already accomplished, but recipients of a previous award may reapply if additional support is needed to complete their work.

W. Storrs Cole passed away on June 14, 1989, at the age of 86. Dr. Cole had been a Fellow of GSA for 58 years and was one of the Society's leading benefactors. The first presentation of this award was in 1991.

The 2021 recipient, Qing Tang, Virginia Tech University, was awarded $6,607 from the W. Storrs Cole Award Fund for research focusing on the Taphonomic study of early Cambrian sponge fossils in South China.

Past Recipients:

  • 2020 - No award was given in 2020
  • 2019 - Dr. Ashley M. Burkett, Oklahoma State University
  • 2018 - Dorothy Pak, UCSB, Marine Science Institute
  • 2017 - Jessica Pilarczyk, University of Southern Mississippi
  • 2016 - Phoebe A. Cohen, Williams College
  • 2015 - Soma Baranwal, CAGE, University of Tromso
  • 2014 - Miriam E. Katz, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • 2013 - Susannah M. Porter, University of California Santa Barbara
  • 2012 - Eduardo Leorri, East Carolina University
  • 2011 - Atsushi Ando, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
  • 2010 - Richard H. Fluegeman, Ball State University
  • 2009 - Michael A. Kaminski, University College London
  • 2008 - Lance L. Lambert , University of Texas, San Antonio
  • 2007 - Benjamin P. Horton, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2006 - Amelia E. Shevenell, University of Washington
  • 2005 - Daniela Natalie Schmidt, Bristol University
  • 2004 - Catherine E. Stickley, Cardiff University
  • 2003 - Joan M. Bernhard, University of South Carolina
  • 2002 - John R. Groves, University of Northern Iowa
  • 2001 - No Award Given
  • 2000 - No Award Given
  • 1999 - T. Markham Puckett, University of Alabama
  • 1998 - Susan T. Goldstein, University of Georgia
  • 1997 - Charles A. Ross, Bellingham, Washington
  • 1996 - Ellen Thomas, Wesleyan University
  • 1995 - Barun Kumar Sen Gupta, Louisiana State University
  • 1994 - Pamela Hallock Muller, University of South Florida
  • 1993 - Jere H. Lipps, University of California, Berkeley
  • 1992 - William A. Berggren, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • 1991 - Robert C. Thunell, University of South Carolina

Gladys W. Cole Memorial Research Award

The Gladys W. Cole Memorial Research Award is restricted to investigation of the geomorphology of semiarid and arid terrains in the United States and Mexico. It will be given each year to a GSA Member or Fellow between 30 and 65 years of age who has published one or more significant papers in geomorphology. Funds cannot be used for work already accomplished, but recipients of a previous award may reapply if additional support is needed to complete their work.

The Gladys W. Cole Memorial Research Fund was established in 1980 by Dr. W. Storrs Cole in memory of his wife. The first award was presented in 1982. Dr. Cole passed away in 1989. He had been a fellow of GSA for 58 years and was one of the Society's leading benefactors.

The 2021 recipient, Ellen Wohl, Colorado State University, was awarded $6,576 from the Gladys W. Cole Fund for research quantifying wood loads in ephemeral channels and floodplains of varying drainage area in three portions of the Colorado River drainage basin in Arizona and Utah.

Past Recipients:

  • 2020 -  Judson Finley, Utah State University
  • 2019 - Glenn Thackray, Idaho State University
  • 2018 - Joan Florsheim, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 2017 - No award given.
  • 2016 - Sara L. Rathburn, Colorado State University
  • 2015 - Lyman P. Persico, Mercyhurst University
  • 2014 - Kyle Nichols, Skidmore College
  • 2013 - Thad A. Wasklewicz, East Carolina University
  • 2012 - Vance T. Holliday, University of Arizona
  • 2011 - David W. Marchetti, Western State College of Colorado
  • 2010 - Kathleen Nicoll, University of Utah
  • 2009 - Mark R. Sweeney, University of South Dakota
  • 2008 - Benjamin J.C. Laabs, SUNY Geneseo
  • 2007 - Martha Cary Eppes, University of North Carolina Charlotte
  • 2006 - Elizabeth B. Safran, Lewis and Clark College
  • 2005 - Kenneth Errol Lepper, North Dakota State University
  • 2004 - J Elmo Rawling, 3rd, University of Wisconsin, Platteville
  • 2003 - David E. Wilkins, Boise State University
  • 2002 - Cassandra Rose Fenton, University of Utah
  • 2001 - Dorothy Sack, Ohio University
  • 2000 - Joel L. Pederson, Utah State University
  • 1999 - Grant A. Meyer, Middlebury College
  • 1998 - Steven L. Forman, University of Illinois
  • 1997 - Peter U. Clark, Oregon State University
  • 1996 - Vance Terrell Holliday, University of Wisconsin
  • 1995 - Robert S. Anderson, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • 1994 - Ellen Eva Wohl, Colorado State University
  • 1993 - Nicholas Lancaster, Desert Research Institute
  • 1992 - R. Craig Kochel, Bucknell University
  • 1991 - Stephen Gene Wells, University of New Mexico
  • 1990 - No Award Given
  • 1989 - No Award Given
  • 1988 - Richard A. Young, SUNY Geneseo
  • 1987 - No Award Given
  • 1986 - Peter W. Birkeland, University of Colorado
  • 1985 - Athol D. Abrahams, SUNY at Buffalo
  • 1984 - William L. Graf, Arizona State University
  • 1983 - No Award Given
  • 1982 - William J. Breed, Flagstaff, Arizona

Applications must be completed by 1 February in 2022 to be eligible for the award, which is awarded in May.

For additional information please contact:

Grants, Awards & Recognition
Geological Society of America
P.O. Box 9140
Boulder, CO 80301-9140
(303) 357-1025
awards@geosociety.org