This Award was established in 2004 in memory of Alfred R. Loeblich, Jr. and Helen Tappan. The award supports undergraduate and graduate student research on any aspect of living or fossil foraminifera or other protists, such as diatoms, coccolithophorids, dinoflagellates, acritarchs, or radiolaria.

Current students with developed research projects in these areas are encouraged to apply for support. To apply, please provide a description of the proposed research, why it is important, a detailed budget with justification for the expenditures and a curriculum vitae. Budgets should provide sufficient detail that a complete understanding of the financial aspects of the proposed work is clear. A letter of support from the student's faculty advisor is also required. These should be sent to Secretary/Treasurer in hard copy or by email. No award will be made for more than $2000. The Board of Directors reserves the right to make no awards or to make awards that differ from the requested budget.

Proposals must be submitted by September 1. Decisions will be made by the Board of Directors in November and funds will be available for the following year.

A letter reporting the progress of the awardee and use of the Foundation's funds is expected within two years after the award. The Board of Directors hopes that the awardees will submit their results to one of the Foundation's publications, and in any case, requests that acknowledgment of the award be included in any thesis, dissertation or publication that results from work supported by an award of the Foundation.

Proposals will be judged upon scientific merit and financial need. Proposals should consist of a short (1-3 pages) summary of the student's research, a curriculum vitae, and a budget. Previous awardees should include a short summary of research completed with the award. Decisions will be made by the Cushman Foundation Board of Directors by the end of November 2008, and funds will be available for 2009. Proposals should be submitted by September 1, 2008 and directed to Jennifer Jett, Cushman Foundation, MRC 121 Dept Paleobiology, PO Box 37012, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 10th and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA or electronically to jettje@si.edu

Previous award winners include:

2007

Deniz Altin, Ph.D. student, The University of Georgia, Department of Geology, USA - "The application of the total evidence phylogenetic approach for phylogenetic reconstruction of selected allogromiid foraminifera of Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA"

Lorraine Casazza, Ph.D. student, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology, USA - "Endosymbiosis in an Eocene Nummulite"

2006

Peter van Hengstum, PhD student, School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University, Canada - "Developing the concurrent use of thecamoebians and foraminifera as a paleoenvironmental archive in the subterranean flooded cave systems of Quintana Roo, Mexico"

Christopher Stanton, MS Student, Dept. of Geological Science, East Carolina University, USA - "Holocene Stratigraphy, Micropaleontology, and Environmental Change: North Carolina Inner Shelf"

2005

Barry A. Taylor, PhD student, School of Earth & Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia - "Palynostratigraphy of the Valanginian to Lower Aptian succession in the
Carnarvon Basin: a critical framework for petroleum exploration on the
North West Shelf of Australia"

Tom Dunkley Jones, PhD student, Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, University of London, UK - "Climate Dynamics, Phytoplankton Productivity and Global Cooling through the Eocene-Oligocene Transition"