There are a number of awards and sources of funding available to graduate students.  The Graduate School has a searchable Fellowships database which lists awards available internally and externally for graduate students and post-docs.  The Graduate School also provides travel funding to enable full time research-degree students to travel to scientific research conferences or research travel.  For specific information and application materials, go to the Graduate School Travel Funding.

Within the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, there are a number of awards presented to graduate students each year:

• The Harry and Samuel Mann Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Graduate thesis advisors in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics are asked to nominate outstanding Biophysics graduate students who have just completed their 3rd or 4th year, will be in residence for at least one more year and have made substantial progress on their dissertation research. The nominated student must possess excellent scientific and personal communication skills and be able to present his/her research to both specialists and non-specialists, including members of the donor family. The award is in the range of $20,000 each year and can be held only once. The student may use the funding for salary, to travel to a conference, purchase a computer and/or research supplies/equipment, as negotiated with the major professor and as approved by the Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
• The George P. Hess Travel Award. Graduate thesis advisors from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics are asked to nominate outstanding Biophysics graduate students who have just completed their 3rd or 4th year, will be in residence for at least one more year and have made substantial progress on their dissertation research for this award in honor of George Hess, who was a valuable member of MBG.. The student must possess excellent scientific and personal communication skills and be able to present his/her research to both specialists and non-specialists. This travel award (preferably for a national or international conference) is for $500.00 and can be held only once.
• Calvo Teaching Award.  Both the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Department of MBG each make one award annually to a graduate student for excellence in teaching in a MBG related course.  The Associate Chair of MBG solicits nominations from faculty of their top teaching assistant of the past year.
• The LPS Award was established by Frank Meleca, founder of the Laboratory Product Sales Company, which sells a variety of products to research labs like those in Biophysics.  This award is given each year to a Biophysics student (and a similar award to a G&D student) who is first author on what is judged to be the “best” paper published in the previous calendar year.  All Biophysics grad students are eligible, including those who have finished their PhD and left Cornell.  The award is $500 in cash, and the winner has his/her name engraved on a plaque in the front office.  Next to the plaque is a framed list of all papers first-authored by Biophysics students in that year.