Department of Biological Sciences
Rice Memorial Fund
The Rice Memorial Fund was established by donations following the death of Barbara Rice in 2009. It honours her memory by encouraging field research. Distributions from the fund support two prizes, named “Rice Memorial Field Research Award” and “Rice Memorial Field Research Proposal Award”.
The Rice Memorial Field Research Award is determined by a Selection Committee at the annual postgraduate conference of the Department of Biological Sciences. All postgraduate research students enrolled in Biological Sciences and giving presentations at the conference and describing research with a substantial fieldwork component are considered as candidates. Field research is interpreted as meaning research undertaken in outdoor environments where wild populations of the study organisms occur. Criteria are the quality of the research, plus the effort and challenge of the fieldwork, plus liveliness and clarity in the conference presentation.
The Rice Memorial Field Research Proposal Award is given for an annual report that incorporates the best proposal towards field research during the forthcoming year.
If the Selection Committee remains undecided between candidates on the basis of other criteria, then preference may be given to candidates whose research or proposal is about plants on land. This preference recognizes Barbara Rice’s personal research in terrestrial botany, but is not to override the major criteria of research excellence and field activity.
Each Award is to be given to a single candidate and not divided. A student may win either Award on more than one occasion, but not for the same fieldwork or proposed fieldwork. The Selection Committee may decide not to make one of the Awards in any given year, taking into account the quality of the candidates and the financial situation of the Fund.
Below are newsletters describing award-winners:
NEWS
Spiderman - did you know that he can do anything a spider can?