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 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. 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. In 2018, 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.
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).

How to Apply:

Applications must include the following four items, all typed in English. The cover sheet and research proposal application template can be downloaded here. Required reporting information is also included in this document.

Cover Sheet Please fill in the cover sheet and send this as one PDF with the rest of the application. 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.
Research proposal
Curriculum vitae (CV) with name, education, current professional position, and publications. Additional information, such as employment history, awards, participation in international conferences, and other projects may also be included.
Letters of recommendation. Letters are required from two professional paleontologists familiar with the applicant’s work, who can provide information on the significance of the proposed project, its feasibility, and the applicant’s ability to carry out the research. These letters must be sent from the referees to the Chair by email on or before the deadline in the grant announcement. (See additional information below.)
PS Professional Conduct Form. Non-members: Please submit a PS Professional Conduct Self-Reporting Form as prescribed in the Paleontological Society Policy on Non-Discrimination and Member Code of Conduct. If, for any reason, you are uncomfortable about completing the form, you are welcome to contact a member of the ethics committee for a confidential conversation in advance. Members have already completed this form during the membership application or renewal process.

The cover sheet, research proposal, and CV must be sent in one PDF file as a form attachment.

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.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation should be sent in PDF format to Dr. Sally E. Walker, Chair, Arthur James Boucot Research Grants. Please place the last name of the letter writer in the subject line of the email message, followed by Boucot, for example: Jones_Boucot.

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 (see page 6).

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.