Overview

In recognition of the importance of basic systematic research to the science of paleontology, the Paleontological Research Institution annually presents the J. Thomas Dutro, Jr. Student Award in Systematic Paleontology to a deserving graduate student. This award of $500 is available to any student enrolled in an advanced degree program (Masters or Ph.D.) who is pursuing research in any area of systematic paleontology. Acceptable costs are research supplies, bench fees, and/or travel in support of fieldwork, museum visits, or to present research at a scientific meeting.

Successful proposals will include clearly articulated hypotheses, descriptions of how anticipated data will help to test them, and why the work is significant. Studies of living taxa must clearly articulate the connection to deep time and evolutionary history.

The application deadline is April 15 of each year. To apply, email a brief description of the research project (two-page maximum, including a simple budget of how the funds will be used, references, any images, etc.) to [email protected]. The student's primary research advisor must email a separate letter of recommendation in support of the project to [email protected], also by April 15.

Award recipients are expected to provide a progress report on supported research within one year of the award.

Past Recipients

  • 2022: Miriam Slodownik of the University of Adelaide for “Revealing the canopy structure and angiosperm niches within polar forests.”

  • 2021: Rylan Dievert of the University of California, Davis for “A re-appraisal of the phylogeny and evolution of the Spiriferinida.”

  • 2020: Sulia Haji Mohamed Salim @ Sulia Goeting of the University of Genova, Italy for “Dutro Award to Sustain My PhD Studying Benthic Foraminifera Offshore Brunei Darussalam.”

  • 2019: Sandy McLachlan of the University of Victoria for “Paleoecological and paleoenvironmental reconstructions across the K-Pg Boundary in the North Pacific: a study of dinoflagellate cysts.”

  • 2018: Ryan Shanks of the University of Kansas.

  • 2017: Brooke Long of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

  • 2015: Joshua Slattery of the University of South Florida for “The influence of eperic and open-shelf seas on evolutionary tempo and mode: a comparative study of the evolution of Late Cretaceous mollusks in the Western Interior Seaway and Gulf of Mexico.”

  • 2014: Selena R. Cole of The Ohio State University for “Systematics of camerate crinoids from the Bobcaygeon Formation (Upper Ordovician), Ontario.”

  • 2013: Matt Downen of University of Kansas for "An Investigation of Spiders Preserved in Lacustrine Environments."

  • 2012: Edwin Cadena of North Carolina State University for "A new fossil turtle from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian-Aptian) of Colombia (South America): revealing the early states of marine turtle evolution."

  • 2011: Sahale Casebolt of the University of Iowa for "Phylogeny of the scleractinian coral family Mussidae."

  • 2009: Michael L. Latham of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for “Phylogenetic implications of the pattern of oral cover plates in the Isorophida (Edrioasteroidea, Echinodermata).”

  • 2008: Joseph Collette III of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for “A window into the Cambrian: an exceptionally preserved arthropod fauna from central Wisconsin.”

  • 2005: Kate Bromfield of the Centre for Marine Studies of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, for “Evolution of coral species over the Miocene-Pliocene boundary (6 Ma) across the Indo-Pacific region.”

  • 2004: Talia Karim of the University of Iowa, for “Lower Ordovician (Ibexian) trilobites of the Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland, Canada.”

  • 2003: Ivana M. Stevanovic-Walls of the University of Pennsylvania, for “Lycopsids of Paracas, Peru.”

  • 2002: Jennifer Harper of UNC Chapel Hill, for “Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Gastrochaenoidea (Mollusca, Bivalvia).”

  • 2001: Marcela Cichowolski of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for “Cretaceous nautiloids of Argentina and Antarctica.”

  • 2000: Wayne Henderson, of the University of California, for “Saukiid trilobites and their implications for Late Cambrian paleogeographic and paleoenvironmental reconstruction.”

  • 1999: Walt Cressler of the University of Pennsylvania, for “Aspects of the vegetation and landscapes of the earliest forest ecosystems (Late Devonian, north-central Pennsylvania).”

  • 1998: Rowan Lockwood of the University of Chicago, for “Taxonomic and morphological recovery after the end-Cretaceous and end-Eocene mass extinctions in venerid bivalves.”

  • 1996: Stephen A. Schellenberg of the University of Southern California, for “A cladistics analysis of the subclass Nautiloidea with comparison to the existing evolutionary taxonomy classification.”

  • 1995: Shen Mei of the University of Michigan, for her study of the phylogeny of early teleost fishes.

  • 1994: Christopher A. McRoberts of Syracuse University, for “Systematics and morphometric evaluation of the pteriid genus Actinopteria (Bivalvia) from the Middle Devonian of New York.”

  • 1993: Michael J. Heaney of Texas A&M University, for his research on the molluscan fossils of the Buckhorn Asphalt (Desmoinesian) of south-central Oklahoma.