Les Mehrhoff Botanical Research Award

Established by the New England Botanical Society in memory of renowned botanist, NEBS Herbarium Curator, and long-time supporter of the New England Botanical Club, Dr. Leslie J. Mehrhoff, the award supports botanical endeavors of the sort that Les championed: field studies, herbarium, library, and archival research. The objective of NEBS in offering the award is to add to our understanding of the flora of New England and floristically related regions. The selection committee favors projects for which traditional funding (such as academic grants and in-house agency support) is difficult to secure. NEBS wishes to thank the Hollis Declan Leverett Memorial Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee, for their support of this award.

Applicants do not need to be a member of our organization to apply for this award.

Project Requirements and Application Instructions

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Les Mehrhoff Botanical Research Award Recipients

2022

Neela de Zoysa for her project entitled "Climbing plants of the Northeastern United States: An assessment of diversity and distribution." Report

Tom Groves for his project entitled "Targeted Surveys for Historical/Rare Collinsonia canadensis in Four Southern Vermont Counties." Report

2021

Peter P. Grima for his project entitled "Botanical details from the archived writings of Lorin Low Dame." Report

Emily T. Magleby for her project entitled "Targeted surveys for Ophioglossum pusillum in western Massachusetts." Report

Matt Peters for his project entitled "Vermont's rare Red Cedar Woodlands: Are they pre-settlement forests?" Report

Amanda Weise for her project entitled "An evaluation of and survey for disjunct East Coast sandplain species in Minnesota." Report

2020

Sarah Bois for her project entitled "Naturalized Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius) on Nantucket, Massachusetts: Assessing the extent of the problem." Final Report

Melissa Cullina and Jennifer Pye for their project entitled "Investigation and assessment of the herbarium specimens of the Monhegan Museum, Maine." Final Report

James Graves for his project entitled "Conserving the Green Mountain College Herbarium, Vermont." Final Report

Christopher Mangels for his project entitled "A search for populations of Provancher's fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus var. provancheri) along the Housatonic River in Connecticut and Massachusetts." Final Report

2019

Matthew P. Charpentier and Laura Green for their project entitled "Habitat characterization and assessment of the northern range limit of the regionally rare Crepidomanes intricatum in Northeast North America." Final Report

Karolina Fučíková for her project entitled "Desmids of selected New England ponds – a comparison to historical data." Final Report

Marion Andrews Holmes for her project entitled "Testing the influence of land-use history and forest stand age on the distribution and abundance of parasitic plants at multiple scales." Final Report

Paige Howard and Eric Doucette for their project entitled "Bryophyte and macrolichen survey of the MCLA forest and creating the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Herbarium." Final Report

2018

Peter Grima for his project titled "Investigating the putative hybrid Carex baileyi x Carex lurida." Final Report

Matt Peters for his project titled "Exploring the eastern alpine: Botanical inventory in Uapishka (Les Monts Groulx), Quebec." Final Report

2017

Dorothy Allard with Arthur Gilman, Ruth Hagerman, Aaron Marcus, Erika Mitchell, Matthew Peters, Anne Reed, Eric Sorenson, Elizabeth Thompson, and Hilda White for their project titled "A Targeted Search for New, Rare and Historically Known Bryophyte Species in Vermont: Ephemeral Wetlands, Alpine Summits and Acidic Cliffs." Final Report

Danny Haelewaters for his project titled "A survey of Russula species (Fungi, Basisiomycota, Agaricomycetes) at the Boston Harbor Islands National Park area, Massachusetts." Final Report

Ya Min for her project titled "Unveiling the Karyotypes of New England Utricularia Species." Final Report

Morgan W. Southgate for her project titled "Ecological Niche Differentiation of the Adiantum pedatum complex in the Green Mountains." Final Report

2016

Susan Fawcett for her project titled "Microhabitat characterization and differentiation in two sympatric rare Aspleniums in northeastern North America." Final Report

Joann Hoy for her project titled "Data analysis of forest seeps in New Hampshire." Final Report

Chase M. Mason for his project titled "Evolution of flower, fruit and seed defenses against herbivory and disease across the dogwoods, osiers and cornels (genus Cornus)." Final Report

Kurt M. Neubig for his project titled "Phylogenetics and taxonomy of Dichanthelium: a complex set of species-level problems in need of resolution." Final Report

Donald Schall with the Botanical Club of Cape Cod and the Island for their project titled "A vascular plant survey of Sandy Neck barrier beach system West Barnstable, Massachusetts." Final Report

2015

Karolina Fučíková for her project entitled "How common and diverse is the epidendric alga Trentepohlia (Ulvophyceae, Chlorophyta) in New England?" Final Report

Jason Karakehian for his project entitled "The Mycological Correspondence of Rev. Moses Ashley Curtis and Rev. Joseph Blake, 1856 – 1861." Final Report

Ian Medeiros for his project entitled "Documenting the serpentine biota of Massachusetts: A study of the plant and lichen diversity of serpentine outcrops in Massachusetts, USA." Final Report

Timothy Whitfeld for his project entitled "Invasive earthworms and plant diversity in Massachusetts's forests." Final Report

Susan Williams for her project entitled "Bryoflora of Mt. Greylock 110 Years Later." Final Report

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Applicant Instructions

PDF for printing

Project Requirements: The research must advance our knowledge of plants that occur in northeastern North America, especially the New England region. Work of a broader scope that is pertinent to New England will also be considered. For purposes of the award, "plants" include vascular plants, nonvascular plants, algae, fungi, and lichens.

Types of Expenses Eligible for Support: Field, herbarium, library, and lab work are eligible for funding. Travel and living expenses associated with the research are eligible, as are supplies and equipment associated with field or lab work. Moderate stipends to help cover time spent on projects will be considered.

Eligibility: The award is open to anyone with background and experience sufficient to accomplish the proposed work. A central theme of the award is to encourage researchers to pursue lines of inquiry that might not otherwise be undertaken. Thus, awards may not be used to augment budgets of established research projects. Projects for which funding is difficult to secure from traditional sources are favored. Graduate students are eligible for projects outside the scope of their primary research (or prior to deciding on a project); more advanced graduate students are encouraged to apply for the NEBS Graduate Student Research Award. Advanced undergraduates are also eligible with a letter of support from their faculty advisor.

Amount of Award: The total funding available is $8,000, with most grants expected to be $2,000 or less, depending on need and merit.

How to Apply: Please submit a proposal describing the research to be conducted, which includes:

• Title page with proposal title, applicant's name, address, phone, and e-mail address
• Body of the proposal of no more than three pages (For a proposal to be successful, the topic must be clearly described, the methods justified, and the results achievable within defined time limits)
• Timeline for completion of the project
• Deliverables including progress reports, if applicable, and plans for disseminating results
• List of literature citations relevant to the project
• Itemized budget, including brief justification for each item
• Curriculum vitae or equivalent statement establishing the applicant's background and qualifications relative to the proposed project. For collaborative efforts, please include names, contact information and synopses of qualifications for all who will contribute to the project.

The application period opens on December 1 and closes on February 1. Applicants will be notified as to the success of their proposals by March 1. Recipients of funds are required to submit a short Final Report of the project outcome (in MS Word format) for posting on the NEBS website by December 1 in the year of the award.

Please submit your complete proposal via email to the Mehrhoff Award Committee: Mehrhoff@Rhodora.org. The complete application should be sent as an email attachment, preferably in PDF format.

If you have questions regarding eligibility, budget, and scope, please email the Mehrhoff Award Committee at Mehrhoff@Rhodora.org.