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Recent Impacts of GSA’s Graduate

Student Research Grant Program

GSA has offered research grants continuously since 1933.
Over that time, GSA has provided more than 17 million dollars
in research funding to more than 22,000 individuals. In the early
1980s, GSA’s primary research grants program began to exclu-
sively support graduate students rather than practicing geoscien-
tists. Today, GSA’s Graduate Student Research Grant program
aims to:
1. Increase opportunities for students of underrepresented commu-
nities to achieve success in research;
2. Build career skills of students through gainful experience with
grant writing, project management, and research; and
3. Support graduate student research in the geosciences and Joshua Zimmt conducting bedding plane counts of fossils on the western
strengthen the geoscience workforce. coast of Anticosti Island (Québec, Canada). Rocky wave-cut tidal benches
along the western coast of Anticosti provide unparalleled access to bed-
ding planes and allow you to walk across the sea floor as it was 445 million
GSA member Joshua Zimmt, a graduate student in the years ago!
Finnegan/Marshall Lab, University of California Museum of
Paleontology, described how his 2019 GSA Graduate Student limited by parameters such as character count, specific sections,
Research Grants impacted his work: and citation style, which can be compared to writing for research
“While Anticosti Island provides one of the best opportunities journals that require specific formatting. Outlining a concise
to study the Late Ordovician mass extinction, arranging a field description of my project, along with the goals associated with its
season on the island is a challenge. A single field season on completion, is crucial in both academia (the completion of my MS
Anticosti costs several thousand dollars, posing a major barrier to degree) and in my planned career in industry (environmental con-
conducting research on the island for faculty and students alike. sulting), which involves the planning, revision, and completion of
The research grants that I received from the Geological Society of several projects every year.”
America (the 2019 Marland Pratt Billings and Katharine Fowler-
Billings Research Award and a 2019 ExxonMobil/GSA Student “As a graduate student, much of the initial work one undertakes
Geoscience Grant) have transformed my research, providing me as part of their dissertation and degree requirements is funded
with the funding I need to complete two full field seasons on through a larger grant awarded to their PI. But as the student
Anticosti Island. In doing so, the grant has directly impacted the grows and develops autonomy of their work, additional smaller
trajectory of my dissertation research, allowing me to pursue a studies and projects may be added to their research agenda. These
comprehensive reassessment of Late Ordovician mass extinction, research activities often have little to no allocated funds from the
working with a fossil record unlike anywhere else in the world. original grant awarded to the student’s PI. This was the case for
Working in such a remote location like Anticosti has allowed me me. The GSA student grant allowed me to pursue a supplementary
to grow and develop as both an individual and academic. Before project to the original work that was funded from my PI’s grant.
my first field season on Anticosti, I had never been camping or This project answers crucial questions regarding the source, trans-
conducted field work. Relying on my own knowledge and abilities port, and post-depositional alteration of salts in hyper-arid polar
in the field was both an important learning process and opportu- environments, and now comprises a chapter of my dissertation. It
nity to push my own boundaries. Reflecting on the field season was also a great experience to add an additional geochemical tool
afterwards allowed me to assess my preparedness, field methods, to my working knowledge and establish close relationships with
and hypotheses, to better plan for the next trip to Anticosti. Next future collaborators.”
summer, I hope to return to Anticosti, fully equipped with a better
understanding of myself and the island, to dive back into the Late “This project has been an extension of my previous skillset in
Ordovician mass extinction!” many ways. This is the first experiment for my Ph.D. that I have
You can read more about Joshua’s research in his recent post on designed and carried out without an experimental road map or
GSA’s Speaking of Geoscience blog: wp.me/pNy1x-1fD. standardized procedure of previous work, which has been really
exciting (but also scary). It has also required a lot of collaboration
Here are other comments from 2019 Graduate Student Research with other labs and folks in other disciplines (chemistry, environ-
Grant recipients, regarding how GSA funding impacted their mental engineering) to get access and expertise in the equipment I
research: needed to use.”

“The application process for the GSA Graduate Student “Thank you GSA for supporting my research as an aspiring vol-
Research Grant proved to be an excellent exercise for me to pro- canologist. With the amount awarded to me I was able to almost
vide a detailed explanation of my research project while being complete a third of my Ph.D. research. In addition, I was able to

12 GSA Today | November 2020