Congratulations to Biology Majors for their accomplishments!   

If you received a scholarship or award recently that is not listed below or on the scholarships page, please send the information to Dr. James Herrick for posting on this page.  Thank you.


2011 - Monticello Garden Club, Ann Warrick Lacy Scholarship

Students majoring in Environmental science, forestry, Horticulture, landscape architecture, Botany, or other garden Related subjects

 The Monticello Garden Club of Charlottesville, Virginia will award two scholarships: one $5000 Scholarship and one $2500 Scholarship, to two undergraduate students majoring in Environmental Science, Forestry, Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, Botany, or other Garden Related Subjects of interest to the Club. The applicant must be a VIRGINIA RESIDENT who is  enrolled  in a VIRGINIA COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY PROGRAM as a rising junior or senior in the fall semester of 2011.

Requests for further information, including application forms, should be made directly to Mrs. W. Ramsey Richardson, Monticello Garden Club Scholarship Chairman, at the address below.  Completed application forms must be received by the Scholarship Chairman no later than April 1, 2011.  The recipients of the Scholarship will be notified by May 10, 2011 and the scholarship monies will be sent to his/her school account by July 1, 2011.

For more information or to request an application form contact:

Mrs. W. Ramsey Richardson,
Scholarship Chairman, Monticello Garden Club,
2150 Whippoorwill Road,
Charlottesville, VA 22901-8811
Email: wrichar450@aol.com

2010 - Pearson Prize

Biology Major Patrick Wiggins was awarded the Pearson Prize, a $10,000 scholarship that recognizes students for their leadership and community service. 

2010- Phi Kappa Phi Thesis Award

Maureen Filak ('10) was awarded the Phi Kappa Phi Thesis award for her Honors work on the role of a protein called RhoA in the various processes that occur very early in the development of a fruit fly embryo. Maureen was Mentored by Dr Susan Halsell.

2007-Goldwater Scholarship

Junior Katherine Kross (’08) of Yorktown won a $7,500 Barry Goldwater Scholarship. She is one of 317 undergraduates from across the United States selected for the scholarship by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. Scholars are chosen based on academic merit from a field of 1,110 mathematics, science and engineering students.  Koss was nominated by Chemistry professor Kathryn Layman, a former Goldwater Scholarship winner, because of her “love of working in the laboratory, her desire to learn and to ask questions, and her exceptional work ethic.” Kross is a biology major who is interested in both medicine and medical research. Established in 1986, the scholarship program honors Sen. Barry M. Goldwater and is designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in fields of mathematics, natural sciences and engineering.

 2007-ASPB Student Award

Grant Marshall ('07) won the Marsho Award for the best oral presentation by an undergraduate at the April meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Society of Plant Biologists. His presentation was entitled: "Characterizing the regulation of a secreted alpha-amylase inArabidopsis thaliana using signal transduction mutants and Q-PCR."  Grant was mentored by Elizabeth Doyle and Jon Monroe.

 2006 - Botanical Society of America Award 

Michael J. Patterson was selected to receive a 2006 Botanical Society of America Young Botanist of the Year Award, and will receive a "Certificate of Special Achievement".  His name will be announced in the next issue of the BSA Plant Science Bulletin and he will receive a one-year membership in the BSA, including a subscription to the American Journal of Botany.

2005 - Ralph Wolfe Award for Excellence 

Two of our students were chosen to receive the first “Ralph Wolfe Award for Excellence” at the Inaugural Meeting of the Shenandoah Valley Student Chapter of the American Society of Microbiologists on December 7, 2005.  
Jeni Banning’s ('06) poster entitled, “Cutaneous Bacterial Flora as a Factor in Joint Nesting Behavior of the Four-Toed Salamander, Hemidactylium scutatum” and Kevin Louder’s ('06) poster entitled, “Isolation and Characterization of Membrane Proteins from Ciliated Epithelial Cells of Turkeys” were each awarded a $75 prize to the authors.  Mentors are Reid Harris and Louise Temple, respectively.

 2005 - Sigma Xi Grants

Two students recently received Sigma Xi grants to fund their research: Tim Cooney ('06), working in Kevin Simon’s lab studying the interactions among animals, microbial films and detritus in cave streams, and Allison Watts (06), working in Mark Hudy's lab studying fish population structure and growth in streams.

2005 - ILMA Scholarship

Keith Johnson ('06) received a $500 scholarship from the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association for the fall 2005 semester.  These scholarships are based on GPA and SAT scores and are given to students pursuing undergraduate degrees in the sciences.  This was the 4th consecutive semester that Keith received this award.

 2005 - Phi Beta Kappa Thesis Award

Amir Allak ('05) received the 2005 Phi Beta Kappa award for the outsanding honors thesis at JMU.  The title of his thesis was "Landscape Levl Airborne Mercury Deposition in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia."  (Mentor - Dean Cocking)

2005 - Marsho Undergraduate Talk Award (ASPB)

Ashleigh Lane ('05) received the Marsho Award for the best undergraduate talk at the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Society of Plant Biologists meeting in Washington, DC, in April 2005.  Her research was on an alpha-amylase gene in Arabidopsis thaliana.  She fused the coding region of the amylase gene to a GFP reporter gene and transformed plants in order to determine where the amylase gene was targeted within cells.  (Mentor - Liz Doyle, Monroe lab)

2004 - Sigma Xi  Grant

Leslie Taylor ('05) received a $1000 grant from Sigma Xi for her research.  Leslie studied how different fish species (brook trout and mottled sculpin) influence the invertebrate community and algal abundance in streams.  Her research used artificial stream channels in which she manipulated the presence of fish and then collected and examined the invertebrates and algae in the artificial streams.  She collaborated on this with a graduate student (Beth Cheever) who presented the research at an international conference last summer. (Mentor - Kevin Simon)

Updated 7/22/10

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