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.

Application Instructions

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Les Mehrhoff Botanical Research Award Recipients

2024

Laura Costello - "Sourcing data on New Hampshire's "indeterminate" vascular plants in support of the 2024 revision to the NH Rare Plants List"

Susan Williams - "Updating the moss list of Massachusetts"

2023

Andre Strongbearheart Gaines, Jr. - "Weaving traditional stories into present day: Wild rice (Zizania palustris & Zizania aquatica) inventory in Nipmuc Territorial Lands"

Matt Peters - "Finding Foggii: Expanding documentation of the globally imperiled Fogg's Goosefoot (Chenopodium foggii)" Report

Christian Schorn - "Targeted surveys for Salicornia maritima in downeast Maine" Report

2022

Neela de Zoysa - "Climbing plants of the Northeastern United States: An assessment of diversity and distribution" Report

Tom Groves - "Targeted Surveys for Historical/Rare Collinsonia canadensis in Four Southern Vermont Counties" Report

2021

Peter P. Grima - "Botanical details from the archived writings of Lorin Low Dame" Report

Emily T. Magleby - "Targeted surveys for Ophioglossum pusillum in western Massachusetts" Report

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

Amanda Weise - "An evaluation of and survey for disjunct East Coast sandplain species in Minnesota" Report

2020

Sarah Bois - "Naturalized Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius) on Nantucket, Massachusetts: Assessing the extent of the problem" Final Report

Melissa Cullina and Jennifer Pye - "Investigation and assessment of the herbarium specimens of the Monhegan Museum, Maine" Final Report

James Graves - "Conserving the Green Mountain College Herbarium, Vermont" Final Report

Christopher Mangels - "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 - "Habitat characterization and assessment of the northern range limit of the regionally rare Crepidomanes intricatum in Northeast North America" Final Report

Karolina Fučíková - "Desmids of selected New England ponds – a comparison to historical data" Final Report

Marion Andrews Holmes - "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 - "Bryophyte and macrolichen survey of the MCLA forest and creating the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Herbarium" Final Report

2018

Peter Grima - "Investigating the putative hybrid Carex baileyi x Carex lurida" Final Report

Matt Peters - "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 - "A Targeted Search for New, Rare and Historically Known Bryophyte Species in Vermont: Ephemeral Wetlands, Alpine Summits and Acidic Cliffs" Final Report

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

Ya Min - "Unveiling the Karyotypes of New England Utricularia Species" Final Report

Morgan W. Southgate - "Ecological Niche Differentiation of the Adiantum pedatum complex in the Green Mountains" Final Report

2016

Susan Fawcett - "Microhabitat characterization and differentiation in two sympatric rare Aspleniums in northeastern North America" Final Report

Joann Hoy - "Data analysis of forest seeps in New Hampshire" Final Report

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

Kurt M. Neubig - "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 - "A vascular plant survey of Sandy Neck barrier beach system West Barnstable, Massachusetts" Final Report

2015

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

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

Ian Medeiros - "Documenting the serpentine biota of Massachusetts: A study of the plant and lichen diversity of serpentine outcrops in Massachusetts, USA" Final Report

Timothy Whitfeld - "Invasive earthworms and plant diversity in Massachusetts's forests" Final Report

Susan Williams - "Bryoflora of Mt. Greylock 110 Years Later" Final Report

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Application Instructions

Application Instructions PDF

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: Applicants may request up to $2,000 in an itemized and justified budget.

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: [email protected]. 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 [email protected].

PLEASE NOTE: Winners of awards amounting to $600 or more will be required to submit IRS Form W-9 Request for Taxpayer Identification Number (provided by our treasurer) before award checks will be issued. In these cases, a Form 1099 will be issued the following January to the recipient reporting the amount as an award (as required by law). Awards will ONLY be paid to the award recipients and NOT to any third party (such as colleges, universities, research institutions, employers, family members, etc.). For winners who are not United States residents, nonrefundable tax withholding of 30% will generally apply unless reduced or exempted by tax treaty.