Grant applications for women in the life sciences due Nov. 7

Are you a female faculty member in the life sciences doing pioneering work?

The Schwartz Research Fund for Women in the Life Sciences is accepting applications, due Nov. 7, for two grants of up to $15,000 each, an increase of $2,500 from last year’s inaugural prizes. They will be awarded to Ithaca and Geneva campus-based female faculty in the life sciences who display outstanding promise for conducting creative research with the goal of supporting an innovative pilot experiment or a significantly new line of inquiry in their current research focus, according to the award website.

Applicants are encouraged to include future conference travel for grantees, their students and postdoctoral associates, support for students and postdoc hiring and other specific scientific needs in their proposals.

“It’s a great opportunity to support women in the life sciences to take some risks and to do innovative research,” said Yael Levitte, associate vice provost for faculty development and diversity.

Winners will be announced by the end of 2016.

Last year’s grant recipient, Natasza Kurpios, assistant professor of molecular medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine, applied her award to advance work in her lab, which uses chicken and mouse embryos as a model to better understand the mechanisms that direct the formation of organs during embryonic development, and birth defects.

Susan Daniel, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the College of Engineering, used her funds to investigate phenomena at biological interfaces and chemically patterned surfaces that interact with soft matter – liquids, polymers and biological materials, like cells, viruses, proteins and lipids.

The Schwartz Research Fund is endowed by Joan Poyner Schwartz ’65 and Ronald H. Schwartz ’65, both chemistry majors in the College of Arts and Sciences who are retired from long careers at the National Institutes of Health and are pioneers in promoting the work and careers of women in the life sciences.

The grants are administered by the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity.

Media Contact

Melissa Osgood