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Research Scholarships and Stipends

Cave Conservancy Foundation (CCF)

CCF Karst Studies Scholarships

Cave Conservancy Foundation 2020-2021 Program Cancelled

Due to financial impact cause by the Coronavirus restrictions, it is necessary for the Cave Conservancy Foundation to cancel the already advertised 2020-2021 Fellowship program.  The Foundation regrets any inconvenience that this may have caused and hope that we can renew the program next year.

Telephone: 804-798-4893 (Cave Conservancy Foundation)

CCF Past Scholarships Awarded

The Foundation appreciates all the applications received and all warranted serious consideration. It is unfortunate that we have a limited amount of scholarships to award. We wish the applicants successful careers.

2019/2020 Fellowships Awarded

  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Ph.D. level($20,000): Lauren Ballou, Texas A&M-Galveston (Department of Marine Biology). “Assessing the biogeographic distribution of anchialine cave fauna using Typhlatya (Crustacea: Atyidae) and Remipedia (Crustacea) as model taxa”
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, M.S. level($7,000): Anna Harris, Western Kentucky University (Department of Geography and Geology). “Quantifying the impacts of timber harvest on karst systems in the Tongass National Forest, Alaska”
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Undergraduate level($6,000):  Levi Trumbore, University of the South (Department of Biology).  “Cave Biodiversity of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park”

Acknowledgement and appreciation are extended to Drs. Annette Engel and Daniel Fong for this annual program’s leadership and to the many others that assisted.

2018/2019 Scholarships Awarded

The Cave Conservancy Foundation has awarded Fellowships for the pursuit of Karst studies since 1997. Over the years approximately $500,000 has been awarded. We also thank those that work on this program; especially, Drs. Culver and Hobbs who have lead facets of the program for years. This year’s fellowship awards are:

  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Ph.D. level($20,000): Olivia Hershey, University of Akron (Department of Integrated Bioscience). “Ultra-small cells in the Wind Cave lakes: A metagenomic investigation of the microbial community within a karst aquifer”.
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, M.S. level($7,000): Chelsey Kipper, Western Kentucky University (Department of Geography and Geology). “A geochemical comparison of two telogenetic karst springs during reverse flow, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky”
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Undergraduate level($6,000): Meredith Snyder, University of South Florida (Department of Cell, Molecular Biology & Microbiology). “Characterization and Analysis of the Crab Creek Cave Biofilm Community”

2017/2018 Scholarship Awarded

The Cave Conservancy Foundation has awarded Fellowships for the pursuit of Karst studies since 1997. Over the years approximately $475,000 has been awarded. This year’s fellowship awards are:

  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Ph.D. level ($15,000): Aron Katz, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (Department of Entomology). “Cave Springtrail Phylogeography Across the Mississippi River Valley”
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, M.S. level ($5,000): Elizabeth Willenbrink, Western Kentucky University (Department of Geology). “Policy Communication and the Impact of Agricultural Communities on Karst Landscapes: A Case Study in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam”
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Undergraduate level ($5.000): Victoria E. Frazier, University of South Florida. “Microbial-Driven Limestone Dissolution in a Coastal Karst System”

2016/2017 Scholarship Awarded

The Cave Conservancy Foundation has awarded Fellowships for the pursuit of Karst studies since 1997. Over the years approximately $450,000 has been awarded. This year’s fellowship awards are:

  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Ph.D. level ($15,000): David Brankovits, Texas A&M at Galveston (Marine Biology Interdisciplinary Program). “A Biogeochemical Investigation of the Carbon Cycling and Methane Dynamics in an Anchialine Cave Ecosystem in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico”
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, M.S. level ($5,000): Kelsey Budahn, University of Akron (Department of Geology).“Condensation Corrosion Processes, Products, and Influence on Cave Morphologies in the Iberian Chain, Spain”
  • CCF Academic Fellowship in Karst Studies, Undergraduate level ($5.000): Abigail Harmon, University of Tennessee – Knoxville. “ Evaluating the impact of minor anthropogenic activites in a seemingly pristine karst watershed, Carter Caves State Resort Park, Kentucky”.

The Conservancy recognizes Drs. Annette Engel and Horton Hobbs for their outstanding Fellowship program conduct.

2015/2016 Scholarship Awarded

The 2015-16 fellowship recipients are listed below. The fellowships are awarded for studies covered topics like speleothem climate records, groundwater hydrology, mechanisms of speleogenesis, and geoarcheology, as well as microbial mediation of biogeochemical processes in karst and the molecular genetics of diverse cave fauna found throughout the United States. Findings from these projects will undoubtedly transform cave and karst science. After careful consideration, we congratulate this year’s fellowships recipients:

  • Bachelors ($5,000): Alison DeVivero, Jacksonville University (Department of Biology and Marine Science): “Geochemical Investigation of Discharging Submarine Springs and Source Waters San Salvador, Bahamas”
  • Masters ($5,000): Allan Cabrero, San Diego State University (Department of Biology): “Lava tube landscape genomics of the cave harvestmen Speleonychia sengeri (Opiliones, Briggsidae)”
  • Doctorate ($15,000): Charles D.R. Stephen, Auburn University (Department of Biological Sciences): “A revision of two problematic pseudoscorpion clades and an exploratory transcriptomic approach to examining troglomorphic evolution in pseudoscorpions”

The Foundation congratulates this year’s recipients and encourages 2016 – 2017 scholarship applications. Interested parties should watch this page, the “NSS News”, or our website: http://www.caveconservancyfoundation.org/ for announcements.

2014/2015 Scholarship Awarded

  • Bachelors (5,000): Ben Freidel, American University: Ben’s study is Cryptic Variation in the Morphological Evolution of Eye Loss in Subterranean Amphipods.
  • Masters ($5,000): Justina Dacey, University of Jacksonville: Justina’s topic is stable isotopes and ion concentrations as tracers for groundwater-surface water interactions on the St. Johns River.
  • Doctorate ($15,000): Kathleen Brannen, University of Tennessee: Kathleen’s topic is comparative metagenomics of microbial succession reveals complex dissolved organic matter cycling in and epigenic cave stream.

The Foundation congratulates this year’s recipients and encourages 2015 – 2016 scholarship applications. Interested parties should watch this page, the “NSS News”, or our website: http://www.caveconservancyfoundation.org/ for announcements.

2013/2014 Scholarship Awarded

  • Bachelors (5,000): Linnea Carver, University of the South, Sewanee: Linnea’s study is the reproduction, feeding and diversity of cave spiders in the Southern Appalachians.
  • Masters ($5,000): Flora Sperberg, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez: Flora’s topic is reconstructing a record of hydroclimate variability over the last two millennia using speleothems collected from Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
  • Doctorate ($15,000): Shahan Derkarabetian, San Diego State University: Shahan’s study is to explore the genetic processes underlying cave adaptation.

2012/2013 Scholarship Awarded

  • Bachelors ($5,000): Amelia Weiss, University of California, Berkeley: Amelia’s study is the abiotic influences on the distributions of tropical cavernicoles.
  • Masters ($5,000): Tracy Audisio, San Francisco State University: Tracy’s topic is the taxonomic revision and phylogeny of the cavernicolous spider genus Yorima. She is part of the group of western speleobiologists that are discovering and documenting the diversity of western caves.
  • Doctorate (15,000): Terri Brown, University of Tennessee: Terri ‘s study is the characteristics and dynamics of dissolved organic carbon in caves, especially with respect to chemoautotrophy, heretofore thought to be limited to a very few caves.

2011/2012 Scholarship Awarded

  • Undergraduate Scholarship ($5,000) to Lory Henderson, The Department of Biology, University of New Mexico for “Hidden treasure lies beneath the Earth’s surface: Do nutrient availability and human impact correlate to antibiotic production in cave bacteria?”
  • M.S. Scholarship ($5,000) to Cameron T. Craig, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama for “Investigating Limiting Factors in Surface vs. Subterranean Systems: A Threshold Elemental Ratio Approach”
  • Ph.D. Scholarship ($15,000) to Katrina Koski, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Tech for “Hyporheic Zone Exchange in Phreatic Karst Conduits and Contaminant Implications”