Apply for the Sarah Crump Graduate Student Summer Fellowship

Sarah Crump was a beloved alum of ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ, the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), and Department of Geological Sciences. She was diagnosed with and succumbed to a rare, aggressive cancer in 2022. Her family and friends have created a summer fellowship in her name to further her legacy in the study of Earth and environmental sciences in high-latitude or high-altitude regions.

The summer fellowship will support a ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ graduate student whose research is centered on processes or climate history central to understanding high-latitude or high-altitude environments, through fieldwork or laboratory analysis of field collections. Preference will be given to applicants whose advisors are members of INSTAAR.

The award (~$15,000) is sufficient to fund 50% GRA salary for the three summer months. If salary is not needed, funds may be used instead to support costs associated with fieldwork, such as travel, field assistant salaries, sampling or analytics, or similar costs tied to the primary research goals of the applicant.

Application deadline

Applications close February 28th 2025. ÌýAnnouncement of the winner will be in April.

We particularly encourage ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ graduate students from diverse backgrounds to apply

Sarah was passionate about creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for women and other underrepresented groups in the scientific community, and INSTAAR isÌýdedicatedÌýto broadening participation in the Earth and environmental sciences. We particularly encourage applications from women and/or individuals who are members of communities that are historically marginalized in the Earth and environmental sciences, including students who are Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Hispanic or Latinx.

Application instructions

You must be a ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ graduate student to apply. Assemble your application as a single PDF document, containing three sections as below.Ìý

Name your file as: YourLastName-YourAdvisorLastName.pdf

1) Research
A one-page essay (a second page of figures is allowed) starting with your name, title, and advisor's name. Your essay should describe your research goals, why your expected results are likely to improve our understanding of important issues, and how your personal background and life experiences (including cultural, educational, familial, and social, etc.) help INSTAAR meet its mission of becoming an inclusive, actively anti-racist institute.

2) Budget
A one-page budget and budget justification that describes how the funds will be used.

3) Advisor letter
A letter of no more than one page from the applicant’s thesis or fieldwork advisor, that confirms their intent to mentor the applicant for the duration of the project.

Applications are open from mid January to late February each year. When open, a large "Submit your application" button will be visible at the bottom of this section. Decisions are typically announced in April.

For questions about this funding opportunity, contact Irina Overeem. For technical issues with the form, contact David Lubinski.

Ìý

The next funding opportunity will be in early 2026

Recipient news

INSTAAR’s 2024 Sarah Crump Fellow reflects on an adventurous season in the Rockies

INSTAAR’s Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship is now accepting applications from ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ graduate students whose research is centered on processes or climate history in high-latitude or high-altitude environments. Last year’s recipient, Katie Gannon, recalls an eventful summer of field science.

Q&A with Katie Gannon, Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship winner

Incoming PhD student Katie Gannon (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) has garnered this year’s Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship. She will investigate greenhouse gas emissions from seasonally ice-covered lakes, working with advisor Bella Oleksy.

Q&A with Sara Padula, first recipient of the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship

We are proud to announce Sara Padula as the first recipient of the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship provides summer support for a graduate student researching Earth or environmental science in Arctic, Antarctic, or alpine regions. We caught up with Sara to ask about her research, her summer, and life as a scientist.

Sarah Crump (1988-2022)

Sarah Crump received her PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019 through INSTAAR and the Department of Geological Sciences. She completed a postdoc at the University of California Santa Cruz, and then began her professorial career as an assistant professor at the University of Utah in 2022.

Sarah was active in all aspects of life, from cutting-edge paleoclimate research using ancient DNA preserved in Arctic and alpine lake sediment, to anything that took her to wild and adventurous places. She diligently worked to improve access to the natural sciences for women and under-represented communities across the country.

Her legacy lives on through this award made possible by the generous donations from colleagues, friends, and family whose lives were enriched by her irrepressible joy, brilliant mind, outdoor spirit, and deep commitment to a fairer and more just world.Ìý

Learn more about Sarah and how continued fundraising will extend her summer grad fellowship into the school year:

More about Sarah and her fellowshipÌý

Sarah Crump, in purple coat, stands in front of a dramatic Baffin Island landscape of colorful tundra suddenly broken by towering cliffs.