- Criteria for awarding the fellowship include an excellent research topic involving Foraminifera, a strong academic record, and evidence of interest in a career involving foraminiferal research such as participation at conferences through oral presentations or posters, and a publication record.
- The fellowship is intended to provide major support for students’ last 1-2 years of graduate research.
The fellowship application must include, preferably as separate pdf files as indicated, the following:
File 1
Compiled applicant information includes:
- 2-page summary of the research project in progress. A third page can be used for figures and/or literature citations.
- List of current and pending financial support, including source, amount and purpose of each. Include an estimate of the financial shortfall for final 1-2 years of study.
- 2-3-page Curriculum Vitae that includes educational background, career goals, publications and meeting presentations, and other information relevant to the applicant’s research potential.
- Send compiled materials (above) to cushmanfoundation@gmail.com
File 2
- Official transcripts of graduate coursework (typically sent to Foundation from institution, use cushmanfoundation@gmail.com).
File 3
- Letter of recommendation from the applicant’s dissertation advisor that:
- Ascertains that the applicant has completed all academic requirements for the doctorate (e.g., required coursework, research proposal acceptance by advisory committee, and qualifying examinations, as required by the institution) except completion of research and dissertation.
- Provides evidence of the applicant’s enthusiasm for and commitment to foraminiferal research.
- Indicates how the award can significantly assist the applicant in completing their dissertation within 1-2 years.
- This letter should be sent from recommenders directly to the Cushman Foundation’s email (cushmanfoundation@gmail.com).
Files 4 & 5
- Two additional letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with the applicant’s research and career potential, and that provide evidence of the applicant’s enthusiasm for and commitment to foraminiferal research. These should be sent from recommenders directly to the Cushman Foundation’s email (cushmanfoundation@gmail.com).
Applicants must hold membership in the Cushman Foundation.
All application materials must be received by March 1. Letters or supporting materials sent separately should clearly state their purpose in support of the applicant. All application materials should be sent to the Cushman Foundation by email. The preferred format for electronic submission is pdf. Other acceptable formats are MSWord.
Submit items to: cushmanfoundation@gmail.com.
2024 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Seth Sutton (University of Wisconsin- Madison) with his project entitled “The Mid-Paleocene Biotic Event and Its Impact on Neritic Benthic Foraminiferal Communities from the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain”
- Giulia Amaglio (University of Milano) with her project entitled “Population dynamics and geochemistry of benthic and planktonic foraminifera to interpret the paleoceanographic changes across the Cenomanian-Turonian Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 at low and high latitudes”
- Dhanushka Devendra (Institute of Oceanology) with his project entitled “Reconstruction of post-glacial changes in oceanographic conditions in the Nordic Seas based on benthic and planktonic foraminiferal assemblages”
2023 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Jamie Suarez-Ibarra of Charles University / Univerzita Karlova, Manuel Weinkauf, advisor) for “Reading between the lines: Ecological and taphonomical signals in late Quaternary planktonic Foraminifera test size variation”
- Tommaso Paoloni of Heriot-Watt University, Babette Hoogakker, advisor, for “Composition of the organic carbon bound within planktonic foraminifera calcite and creating the first record of δ13CForam_OM”
- Chloe Jones of University of Southampton, Tom Ezard, advisor, for “Do biotic factors buffer against climate-driven extinction threats?”
2022 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Amanda Andreas, “Cytological and physiological impacts of toxic metals on an agglutinated Antarctic foraminifer”. University at Albany, State University of New York.
- Anya Hess, “Calibrating the I/Ca proxy in modern planktonic foraminifera in different oxygen settings using core tops from a transect across the equatorial Pacific”. Rutgers University.
- Shawn Taylor, “Using planktic foraminiferal assemblages to reconstruct the Pleistocene behavior of the Kuroshio Current Extension and infer paleobiogeographic patterns across glacial-interglacial cycles”. Binghamton University, State University of New York.
- Lloyd Anderson, “Reconstructing Paleogene atmospheric CO2 by cross-calibrating the boron isotope geochemistry and paleoecologies of Paleocene to Oligocene planktic foraminifera”. Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
2021 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Yuxin Zhou, “First stable isotope and Mg/Ca measurements on sessile benthic foraminifera Rupertina stabilis”. Lamont Doherty / Columbia University.
- Vandana Gupta Kumari, “Modern benthic foraminiferal assemblage in response to environmental parameters in the Indian Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem”. University of Calcutta.
- Lorna Kearns, “A multi-scale investigation into the impact of abiotic changes on ecological communities”. University of Southampton.
2020 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Caitlin Livsey, “Assessing the geochemical variability in Neogloboquadrina pachyderma calcite and the implications for high-latitude paleoceanography”. University of California, Davis.
- Brittany Hupp, “Stable Isotopes as a Taphonomic Filter: Deconvolving the Effects of Sediment Mixing on Planktic Foraminiferal Assemblages of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum”. University of Wisconsin, Madison.
2019 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Adriane Lam, “Testing plankton speciation and dispersal dynamics in Western Boundary Currents and across ocean basins: Paleoceanographic study of the Globoconella lineage”. University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
2018 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Trine Edvardsen, “Foraminiferal studies of the Cretaceous-Palaeogene succession – from the chalks of NW Europe to IODP-recovered samples of the Australian western margin”. The Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen.
2017 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Anieke Brombacher, "Disentangling synergistic climate drivers on the evolution of planktonic foraminifera". National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.
2016 Johanna M. Resig Awardees
- Elizabeth Brown, “Morphological variability in the Globigerinoides ruber-elongatus plexus and its implications.” University of South Florida, USA.
- Emily Osborne, "Development and Application of Foraminiferal Carbonate System Proxies to Quantify Ocean Acidification within the California Current System." University of South Carolina, USA.
2015 Johanna M. Resig Awardees
- Catherine Davis, "Planktic Foraminifera of the Central California Margin: Seasonality and Laboratory Culture for applications in Paleothermometry and Paleoceanography," University of California, Davis, USA.
- Natasha Mendez-Ferrer, "Characterizing photic stress in Amphistegina gibbosa d’Orbigny," University of South Florida, USA.
- Kate Salmon, "How has recent ocean acidification affected the biocalcification and ecology of planktonic foraminifera?” Open University, United Kingdom.
2014 Johanna M. Resig Awardees
- Roberto Sierra, "Phylogenomics of Foraminifera," University of Geneva, Switzerland.
- Jennifer Hertzberg, “Mg/Ca Paleothermometry in Planktonic Foraminifera: Proxy Refinement and Applications in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific,” Texas A&M University, USA.
- Claudio Stalder, "Benthic foraminifera assemblages from cold-water coral ecosystems: comparing active, declining, buried modern and fossil analogues, "University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
- Kate Leigh Strachan," Reconstructing sea-level change along the east and south coast of South Africa," University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
2013 Johanna M. Resig Awardee
- Manuel Weinkauf, "Morphological variability and symmetry of foraminiferal shells in response to rapid environmental change," University of Bremen, Germany.