Travel Grants for Undergraduate Scholars
Travel grants are awarded to encourage undergraduate research scholars to present their scholarly work at a regional or national conference. A maximum of up to $ 400 may be awarded to a student to defray the incurred travel expenses. It is expected that the faculty mentor and/or the department will provide additional funds to cover the remaining travel expenses. Only one travel grant per student per year will be awarded.
Benefits of presenting at a conference
COMMUNICATE YOUR RESEARCH
When you present your research at a conference, you are sharing your findings with other researchers in the field who value your contributions. You also have the opportunity to learn more about the exciting developments in your field of research.
NETWORK WITH THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
You have the opportunity to introduce yourself to the wider scientific community and explore other areas of interest. These interactions might lead to fruitful collaborations or to future jobs, internships, or graduate school admissions.
become a professional researcher
When you attend a conference, you grow as a professional. You gain more opportunities, tools, and the skills to accomplish goals in a timely fashion. You also meet other researchers in a setting that helps you thrive and enables you to refine your research.
Additional information
What's Covered with a Travel Grant?
- A maximum of $400 may be reimbursed to defray the student’s travel expense.
- The travel award can be used for the following expenses: airfare, lodging/hotel and registration fees (If you are splitting the cost of your hotel room with another person(s), you must let me know).
- The travel award cannot cover the membership fees, gas, meals, or international travel expense at this time.
- Travel grant application should be submitted at least 30 days prior to the conference departure.
- Please note that only the amount that was approved prior to the travel will be reimbursed when the student submits all the required receipts within 20 days of conference return.
Requirements:
- Proof of conference acceptance required at the time of submitting a travel grant application.
- The faculty mentor and/or department should provide additional funds to support the student’s travel.
- Applicant must be an enrolled Mines student when traveling to the conference.
- Travel awards are reimbursement grants. Students are responsible to submit paperwork within 20 days of conference return to get reimbursed. Keep the receipts safe as we will need copies.
- Travel awardees are required to present their work at the Mines undergraduate research symposium held annually in April.
Eligibility:
- Applicants must be currently enrolled Mines undergraduate student conducting research with a Mines faculty.
- Applicants must present their scholarly work at the conference.
- Only one travel award per student per year.
- Applications for the travel awards will be accepted on a rolling basis until the travel funds are exhausted.
- Competitiveness of application and exact award amount will depend on the following: Applicants will be preferenced who are first-authors or sole presenters; have participated in research through Undergraduate Research Scholars (ie MURF).
2023
Claire Nelson
Claire Nelson, a Chemistry senior, was awarded a Travel Grant to deliver an oral presentation at the ACS Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting in Laramie, WY in September 2023. Her presentation was titled “Examining the physical interactions of surface-initiated cationic polymer brushes with therapeutic nucleic acids for gene delivery.” Claire’s research has the potential to provide a new polymeric model that could be viable for other forms of drug delivery besides nucleic acids.
Mentor: Ramya Kumar, Chemical & Biological Engineering
Frances LeDuke
Frances LeDuke, a Geological Engineering sophomore, was awarded a Travel Grant to poster presentation at the Geological Society of America Connects conference in Pittsburg, PA in October 2023. Her poster was titled “Correlation of electrical resistivity profiles and soil properties at mine waste sites.” Frances’ research is trying to understand the extent to which contamination due to legacy mining can be determined or measured.
Mentor: Rennie Kaunda, Mining Engineering
Armand Ovanessians
Armand Ovanessians, a QBE senior, was awarded a Travel Grant to deliver an oral presentation at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing in Waimea, Hawaii in January 2024. His presentation is titled “Creation of a Curated Database of Experimentally Determined Human Protein Structures for the Identification of Its Targetome.” Armand’s research has the potential to begin answering the question, “How can we develop a platform that illuminates the impact of specific drugs or ligands on every individual human protein?”
Mentor: Susanta Sarkar, Engineering Physics