PS Arthur James Boucot Research Grants

The Arthur James Boucot Research Grants were initiated by Dr. Arthur James Boucot and Barbara Boucot. Art Boucot, a former President of the Paleontological Society (1980-1981), was an internationally renowned paleontologist, specializing in Paleozoic fossils, specifically brachiopods and gastropods. He was a recipient the SEPM R. C. Moore Medal and the Paleontological Society Medal, among many other honors and distinctions. Art had a seven-decade career devoted to fieldwork in invertebrate paleontology that covered all continents, including Antarctica, resulting in over 500 peer-reviewed publications and books. Art made major contributions to paleocommunity evolution, paleobiogeography, biostratigraphy, and refinements to the geologic time scale, including resolutions of problems concerning Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian boundaries.

The Arthur James Boucot Research Grants support early career paleontologists in the fields of morphology, taxonomy, and biostratigraphy, working on any taxa, preferably with some combination of these approaches and a significant fieldwork component. Arthur James Boucot Research Grants support original research by current postdoctoral students, assistant professors (pre-tenure), and other early career paleontologists with a PhD, with the possible exception of an occasional individual deemed to be unusually qualified. Paleontologists must be associated with universities, institutes, and academies of science, or equivalent institutions.

Applicants must be Paleontological Society members unless there are extenuating circumstances. The Paleontological Society has $20,000 to award. Awards are typically less than $5000, but larger awards are possible. Awards are made directly to individuals and not to institutions. Awards cannot be used for institutional overhead, publication costs, or modeling studies that rely on fossil or modern databases. Applications are encouraged from anywhere in the world, except those from countries with economic or trade sanctions imposed by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Grant applications are due Feb. 1 of each year.

Who May Apply?

Applicants must be Paleontological Society members unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Arthur James Boucot Research Grants support original research by current postdoctoral students, assistant professors (pre-tenure), and other early career paleontologists with a PhD, with the possible exception of an occasional individual deemed to be unusually qualified.
Paleontologists must be associated with universities, institutes, and academies of science, or equivalent institutions.
Applications are encouraged from the United States and elsewhere in the world.
The Paleontological Society cannot award grants to applicants from countries with economic or trade sanctions imposed by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Application requirements:

Name and professional affiliation.
Project title.
Brief description of proposed research, including abstract and methods (one page, with name, professional affiliation and project title included).
Research significance (one-half page).
References, tables and figures (one page).
Research budget and justification (one-half page).
Appropriate uses of the Arthur James Boucot and Norman Newell Research Grant funds include (but are not limited to): domestic and foreign travel for research, field research, and equipment purchases. Funds do not cover institutional overhead or publication costs.
Current and pending support (one-half page).
Are you currently supported by a grant organization on a project similar to or inclusive of the current grant proposal? Please give details. Have you submitted this grant proposal or similar proposal(s) to other grant organizations? Please list them and give details of proposed levels of support, length of the project, and how this proposal differs (if it does).

How to Apply:

To apply please fill out this form.

An email message of confirmation will be sent to all applicants. Your email address, institutional affiliation, address, and telephone number are required, as are names and addresses of two professional paleontologists who are writing letters of support.

Be sure to include your name and the project title in this document. The file should be titled with your last name, the grant you are submitting for, and the word “App”.

Example: Doe_AJBoucot_App

Deadline: Grant applications and letters of recommendation must be received by end of February 1 (by 12:00 midnight Pacific Time). Applications and letters received after that date will not be considered.

Letters of recommendation: In addition to the application, two letters of recommendation are required from the professors or other qualified individuals who know the applicant well and can address the qualification of the applicant and their ability to complete the proposed work for the Arthur James Boucot Research Grant

Letters of recommendation need to be on Institutional letterhead and no longer than two pages single spaced, signed and dated. Importantly, letters of recommendation are submitted by the referees and not the applicants. File name for the letter is as follows:

Last name of letter writer_Last name of Applicant_AJBoucot
Example: Walker_Doe_AJBoucot

Letters of recommendation in pdf format are due February 1 by midnight Pacific Time and submitted to: [email protected] An email message of confirmation will be sent to all applicants.

Research Reports

Research Reports are due May 1 of the year following the receipt of an Arthur James Boucot Research Grant

Research report: A brief report on the research is required and is due on 1 May, one year following the awarding of a Boucot grant. The completed report should be emailed as a single PDF to the Chair of the Arthur James Boucot Grants committee. You are encouraged to include links to videos, photos, or other appealing illustrations that may be included on the Paleontological Society’s website and social media. The research report template can be downloaded here. The report should be no more than four pages and should contain the following six parts:

Name and professional address.
Project title.
Brief description and significance of research results, including abstract. Please comment on whether the research is completed or ongoing.
References, tables and figures.
Presentations and publications resulting from the grant.
Research expenditures in relation to the initial budget.

The file should be titled with your last name, name of grant, and then Reseach Report shortened to “ResReport”, like this: Doe_AJBoucot_ResReport_date

Example: Walker_AJBoucot_ResReport_2024

Upload your annual report on or before May 1 (a year following the receipt of your award) with email to: [email protected]

Additional Information

There is no limit to the number of times an early career paleontologist may apply for a Boucot Research Grant, however applicants are asked to submit a different proposal after two unsuccessful submissions of the same or similar proposals. Only one application per year will be considered. Applicants who have received a Boucot Research Grant may reapply only after they have submitted their annual report due May 1, a year after their initial award.

Applicants will be notified via email the week of May 1 as to whether their grant was funded or not. Awardees who are not able to undertake the proposed research must return any unused portion of the grant to the Paleontological Society. Awardees are encouraged to present research stemming from this award at scientific conferences and to publish their work in Paleontological Society journals. The Arthur James Boucot Research Grants should be acknowledged in publications and presentations.

Awardees are required to submit a research report to the chair of the Boucot Research Grants committee approximately one year after being awarded a grant. The deadline for this report is May 1, a year after the funds are awarded. The report should summarize research results and indicate how the funds were spent.

Dr. Sally E. Walker

Chair, Arthur J. Boucot Grant Committee
Department of Geology
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602 USA
E-mail: [email protected]

If you have any questions about applications or the submission process for grants, please contact [email protected]

2024 Awardees

Dr. Mairin Balisi
Title: Chronology and spatial distribution at Maricopa brea, late Pleistocene of inland California

Dr. Aidan Couzens
Title: Australia, the Island Ark: Investigating the Paleogene origins of Australia’s terrestrial fauna

Dr. Daniel Barta
Title: Investigating the origins of diapsid reptile growth patterns through osteohistology of a growth series of the Early Permian diapsid Araeoscelis

Dr. Annaka Clement
Title: Morphological diversity and convergence in Late Triassic high paleolatitude flat-clam communities

Dr. Martina Caratelli
Title: Diversity of benthic foraminifera and paleoenvironmental changes across the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene in northern Patagonia, Argentina

2023 Awardees

Dr. Camilla Souto
Title: Taxonomic revision and natural history of the rare cassiduloid echinoid Oligopodia

Dr. Adriane Lam
Title: Exploring the Middle Silurian proliferation of diploporan echinoderms in Laurentia

Dr. Ana Sagasti
Title: Plant paleoecophysiology and paleoecology of fossil geothermal systems from the Jurassic of Patagonia Argentina.

Dr. Keith Minor
Title: A high-resolution biostratigraphic framework for the Campanian Gulf Coastal Plain

Dr. Cemile Solak
Title: Benthic foraminiferal and paleoenvironmental changes across the Cretaceous- Paleogene (K/Pg) transition in shallow platform environments, Central Taurides, Turkey

2022 Awardees

Dr. Adiel Klompmaker
Title: Evaluating the effect of the Cretaceous-Paleogene event on the diversity, abundance, composition, and body size of decapod crustaceans

Dr. Viktor Karádi-Kapiller
Title: Application of objective methodologies for morphological analysis of Lower Norian conodonts: filling the gaps in Triassic biozonation

Dr. Chris Law
Title: Paleoenvironmental and ecological effects on the diversification of carnivoran body shape

Dr. Scott Evans
Title: Expanding the horizons of erniettomorphs from the Great Basin, USA: Taxonomy, taphonomy and paleoecology of the last members of the Ediacara Biota in Laurentia

Dr. Arturo Miguel Heredia
Title: Examining the little-known pterosaur track record from Gondwana

2021 Awardees

Dr. Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig
Title: The oldest definitive pachycephalosaur (Ornithischia: Marginocephalia): a remarkable new specimen from the Lower Cretaceous Khuren Dukh Formation (Albian) of Mongolia

Dr. Jill Leonard-Pingel
Title: Assessing the impact of land-use on reef ecosystems in San Salvador Island, Bahamas

Dr. Elisabete Fernandes de Almeida Malafaia
Title: Evolutionary history of Late Jurassic theropod dinosaurs from the peri-North Atlantic realm: understanding the paleobiogeographic link between Iberia and North America

Dr. David Cordie
Title: Diversity and environmental stability in the late Cambrian of Laurentia

2020 Awardees

Dr. Marissa J. Betts
Title: Big applications of small shelly fossils: Building the early Cambrian timescale

Dr. John D. Orcutt
Title: Hemphillian ecosystems of the Columbia Basin

Dr. Kathyrn E. Stanchak
Title: The Evolution of the Lumbosacral Spinal Column in Coelurosaurs

Dr. Qing Tang
Title: Taphonomic investigation of early sponge fossils in South China

2019 Awardees

Dr. Sarah Sheffield
Title: Macroevolutionary trends of Paleozoic Gondwanan and Laurentian echinoderms.

Dr. Phillip Barden
Title: Amber insights into Caribbean extinction, stasis, and niche evolution with ant morphometrics.

Dr. Allison W. Bronson
Title: Skeletal morphology of extinct chondrichthyans from the Late Mississippian Fayetteville Shale (Arkansas, USA).

Dr. Andrew V. Michelson
Title: Quantifying drought severity, frequency, and spatial extent in Maharashtra State, India using ostracodes preserved in lake sediment.

Dr. Sergi López-Torres
Title: Living on the edge: the Miocene primates from Poland in the context of the Eastern Paratethys.

2018 Awardees

Dr. Selina R. Cole
Title: Phylogenetic paleoecology of crinoid echinoderms from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Berchin Lagerstätte.

Dr. Rosie L. Oakes
Title: Preparing for a change: using modern and legacy collections to create a pre-ocean acidification baseline for pteropods.

Dr. Leigh Anne Riedman
Title: Eukaryotic richness across the Neoproterozoic Bitter Springs carbon isotopic anomaly.

Dr. Brian A. Atkinson
Title: Diversity of Cretaceous permineralized floras along western North America: Shedding light on a possible biogeographic link between Vancouver Island and Southern California.

Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard
Title: Osteohistology permits a robust ontogenetic assessment of the extinct dire wolf (Canis dirus) and life history comparisons with the extant gray wolf (Canis lupus).

2017 Awardees

Adiel A. Klompmaker
Title: Isopod parasitism in fossil crustaceans: patterns through time, effect of host abundance, and influence on host body size

Julien Kimmig
Title: Soft-bodied fossils in the Spence Shale: their distribution, preservation, paleoecology and implications for other Burgess Shale-type deposits

Cecilia Soledad Cataldo
Title: Gastropods from the far south: Early Cretaceous associations from west-central Argentinian Patagonia

Martin R. Smith
Title: The non-mineralized prelude to the Cambrian Explosion

Stephen Francis Poropat
Title: Mid-Cretaceous terrestrial vertebrates from the Winton Formation, Queensland (northeast Australia)

2016 Awardees

John C. Benedict
Title: Revising the systematics, biogeography, and evolutionary history of Alnus (Betulaceae)

Michael D. D’Emic
Title: First ash-derived radiometric date from the Lower Cretaceous Cloverly Formation: Paleogeographic, tectonic, and biostratigraphic implications

Simon Darroch
Title: Ichnology and ichnostratigraphy of the latest Ediacaran in southern Namibia

Briony Mamo
Title: Detritus and Pearls — Late Holocene and Anthropocene history of human- and monsoon-induced alteration of the Pearl River Estuary ecosystem and food web

2015 Awardees

Arden R. Bashforth
Title: Floristic response to climatic change across the Atokan-Desmoinesian boundary (middle Pennsylvanian) in the Illinois Basin

Laura J. Cotton
Title: Biotic and abiotic drivers of shifting marine tropical biodiversity hotspots during the Eocene-Oligocene

Chris Mays
Title: South polar forests of the mid-Cretaceous global greenhouse

Rachel A. Racicot
Title: Evolution of brain anatomy of toothed whales revealed by CT scans

2014 Awardees

Majid Mirzaie Ataabadi
Title: The Oligocene-Miocene record of marine mammals (sea cows) from Central and Zagros basins of Iran, Western Asia. Awarded but not funded

Adiël A. Klompmaker
Title: Decapod crustaceans in cold, deeper water coral reefs: vision, body size and facies-related diversity.

Amelinda Webb
Title: Effect of environment and community morphospace in Devonian brachiopods.

Michael Meyer
Title: Examining the relationship between early animal evolution and the development of bioturbation in the late Ediacaran of South China.