Guani Family Fellowship in Conservation Biology

Guani Family Fellowship in Conservation Biology

Criteria: The Department of Natural Resources and the Environment has been awarded funds by the Guani family to support a graduate fellowship in Conservation Biology. This fellowship is designated for newly admitted Ph.D. or M.S. /Ph.D. candidates who plan to conduct research in Conservation Biology.

Prospective students must plan to work on some aspect of management and conservation of biological resources in Latin America or with a Latin American focus.

All nominees must be prospective Cornell graduate students in the Field of Natural Resources and the Environment (i.e., may not be used for continuing students or to facilitate transfers to the Field of Natural Resources and the Environment from other fields at Cornell).

Amount and use of funds: The Guani Fellowship award will consist of one semester of support (stipend, tuition and health insurance) for each of the first two years of the nominee’s graduate studies. A faculty member proposing a student for this fellowship will need to provide funding for the second semester in each year of the Guani award. After the award has been made, the student is unable to defer the Fellowship. If the student does not use the Fellowship in a
particular year, that year will be forfeited (i.e., the fellowship cannot be carried over to a subsequent year).

Application process: Candidates will be assessed based on their graduate school application materials and a brief letter of nomination from the faculty member proposing the candidate for the Guani Fellowship. Faculty advisors proposing a prospective graduate student should send a nomination letter to the Graduate Field Assistant no later than December 1st and confirm that all application materials are on file for the candidate’s admission to the graduate program in the Field of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Selection process: The Graduate Admissions and Policy Committee will review nominated students during the February admission committee meeting. If the committee receives no suitable applications for the fellowship in a particular year, the committee will reconvene the following year to review a new round of applications.

Reporting requirements: Each fellowship recipient will be required to write a brief final report at the end of the two-year funding period that describes their research progress.