Grants Awarded

Following is a list of recent Billings Fund grant recipients.  We congratulate all of these students on their awards.

These grants are limited to funding expenses related to field work (e.g. field equipment and supplies, transport, accommodations, and the preparation of maps) and would not fund a new hard disk for a computer or lab fees for sample analysis, etc. 

Grants Awarded for 2024

  1. Guillame Bats, of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, for a project entitled “Volcanism of the Opemisca Group in the Chapais-Chibougamau region, Abitibi Subprovince”. The amount of the award is $2,500 and his faculty advisor is Pierre-Simon Ross.

Grants Awarded for 2023

  1. Amanda Smith of Acadia University, for a project entitled “U-Pb zircon dating and tectonic implications of th Gamble Brook a Folly River Formation, Cobequid Highlands Nova Scotia”. Faculty Advisor, Sandra Barr. $2500 awarded.
  2. Erin Dowling, of Queen’s University, for a project entitled “Sedimentological and paleoenvironmental evolution of the Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, Canada” Faculty Advisor, Elisabeth Steel. $1250 awarded.

Grants Awarded for 2022

None: Reviewers rejected all applications.

Grants Awarded for 2021

  1. Project Title: Mapping and structural analysis of the southwestern Avalon terrane in southeastern Connecticut. Student Investigator: Noah Fleischer, Colorado School of Mines. Faculty Advisor: Yvette Kuiper. Amount awarded: $750. 
  2. Project Title: In situ tracking of subducted sediment melting processes in the Theford Mines ophiolite, Canadian Appalachians. Student Investigator: Tiago Angelo, Queens University. Faculty Advisor: Christopher Spencer. Amount awarded: $2000. 
  3. Chronology of deglaciation in the Seacoast Rgion of New Hampshire. Student Investigator: Julia Brazo, University of New Hampshire. Faculty Advisor: Joe Licciardi. Amount awarded: $1424.

Grants Awarded for 2020

  1. Project Title: Crystal Mush Remobilization. Student Investigator, Stephen Oni, McGill University. Faculty Advisor: John Stix. Amount awarded: $1340. 
  2. Project Title: The Pinewood Adamellite: Southwestern Connecticut’s Hidden Gem – An Investigation of Hidden Alleghanian Deformation. Student Investigator: Rebekah Kennedy, Wesleyan University. Faculty Advisors : Robert Wintsch and Robert Thorson. Amount awarded: $1285.

Grants Awarded for 2019

  1. Project Title: Reinterpreting the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction from a Sequence Stratigraphic Perspective, Anticosti Island. Student investigator: Joshua Zimmt, University of California, Berkeley. Faculty Advisor: Seth Finnegan. Amount awarded: $2500 
  2. Project Title: Exploring the Relationships between crustal thinning, a fundamental suture, and Critical Mineral Genesis in New England: Bridging the Gap between Geology and Geophysics with Mapping, Geochronology, and Geochemistry. Student Investigator: Ian Hillenbrand, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Faculty Advisor: Mike Williams. Amount awarded: $1000.

Grants Awarded for 2018

  1. Project Title: Metamorphic and Tectonic Evolution of the Meguma Terrane, Nova Scotia. Student investigator: Alexandra Nagurney, Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Faculty Advisor: Mark Caddick. Amount Awarded: $1500
  2. Project Title: Post-glacial sedimentation in Ossipee Lake, New Hampshire: Land use versus climate change. Student investigator: James Lenoir, Boston College. Faculty Advisor: Noah Snyder. Amount Awarded: $1000

Grants Awarded for 2017

  1. Project Title: Linking bedrock geology to unusually high uranium levels in well water in southwestern Connecticut utilizing high-resolution bedrock mapping and geochemistry. Student investigator: Shannon Neale, University of Cincinnati. Faculty Advisor: Craig Dietsch. Amount Awarded: $1500 
  2. Project Title: Brittle Fault Structures of the Keene Area and their Effect on Ground Water Flow and Quality. Student investigator: Katie Woltner, Keene State College. Faculty Advisor: Charles Kerwin. Amount Awarded: $640 

Grants Awarded for 2016

  1. Project Title: Integrating in-situ monazite dating with field work in the eastern Adirondacks: implications for alternative orogenic histories in assembling North America.   Student Investigator: Meghan Toft of University of Massacusetts, Amherst.  Faculty Advisor: Mike Williams.  Amount Awarded: $1500
  2. Project Title: Bedrock mapping in the southern portion of the Gilead and Bethel 7.5′ quadrangles, southwestern Maine.  Award shared jointly by two student investigators: Erik Divan and Audrey Wheatcroft of Bates College.  Faculty Advisor: Dyk Eusden.  Amount Awarded: $1000

Grant Awarded for 2015

  1. Project Title: Mapping of mafic rocks along the Silurian tectonic hints, Orange-Milford Belt, Connecticut.  Student investigator: Ryan Deasy of Indiana University.  Faculty Advisor: Bob Wintsch.  Amount Awarded: $1500
  1. Project Title: Structural Development of a Volcanic Passive Margin: Paleostress Inversion of Faults in the Hartford Basin. Student Investigator: James Farrell of the University of Connecticut.  Faculty Advisor: Jean Crespi.  Amount Awarded: $1000 from the Billings Fund augmented by $900 from GSA.
  2. Project Title: Geologic Bedrock Mapping in the Mt. Washington West 7.5′ Quadrangle, New Hampshire.  Student Investigator: Sarah Xiao of Bates College.  Faculty Advisor: Dyk Eusden. Amount Awarded: $850 

Grants Awarded for 2013  

  1. Project Title: Shearing History of the Chester Shear Zone and Exhumation History of the Lincoln Region, East Central Maine.  Student Investigator: Hind Ghanem of Indiana University.  Faculty Advisor: Bob Wintsch.  Amount Awarded: $1000.
  2. Project Title: Mapping Bedrock Lithology in the Gilead and Newry Regions of Western Maine.  Student Investigator: Saebyul Choe of Bates College.  Faculty Advisor: Dyk Eusden.  Amount Awarded: $750.
  3. Project Title: Mapping Bedrock Lithology in the Gilead and Newry Regions of Western Maine.  Student Investigator: Sula Watermulder of Bates College.  Faculty Advisor: Dyk Eusden.  Amount Awarded: $750.

Grand Awarded for 2011

  1. Project Title: Structural Analysis and Mapping of the Church Road Phyllonite; Berwick, Me.  Student Investigator: Kendra Lynn of Winona State University, Minnesota.  Faculty Advisor: Steve Allard.  Amount Awarded: $1060.

Grant Awarded for 2010

  1. Project Title: Paleostress Analysis of Mesozoic Fractures and Basalt Dikes, Mt. Washington Region, New Hampshire.  Student Investigator: Carter Kindley of Bates College.  Faculty Advisor: J. Dykstra Eusden.  Amount Awarded: $1000.

Grant Awarded for 2009

  1. Project Title: Deformation Style of the Leeds-Coxsackie Segment of  the Hudson Valley Fold-Thrust Belt.  Student Investigator: Petr Yakolev of Boston College.  Faculty Adviser: Yvette Kuiper.  Amount Awarded: $1000.

Grants Awarded for 2008

  1. Project Title: Testing the transpression model for Late Paleozoic orogenesis in the Bronson Hill Terrane – Central Maine Terrane boundary, north-central Massachusetts.  Student Investigator: Tim O’Brien of the University of Kentucky.  Faculty Adviser: Dave Moecher.  Amount Awarded: $1000.
  2. Project Title: Geologic mapping in the Leeds-Coxsackie area, New York.
    Student Investigator: Petr Yakolev of Boston College.  Faculty Adviser : Yvette Kuiper.  Amount Awarded: $1000.

Grant Awarded for 2005

  1. Project Title: Structural and Petrologic Investigation of the Gove and Gonic Members as a Possible New Location for Central Maine Terrane-Merrimack Group Terrane Boundary, Southeastern New Hampshire.  Student Investigator: Jennifer N. Koester, Winona State University, Minnesota.  Faculty Advisor: Steve Allard.  Amount Awarded: $815.

Grant Awarded for 2004

  1. Project Title: Discrimination of Acadian and Alleghanian Metamorphism and Fabric development across the Chicken Yard Line Fault Zone in New Hampshire/Vermont: a Structural and Isotopic Study.  Student Investigator: Cory Kyle Mcwilliams, Indiana University.  Faculty Advisor: Robert Wintsch.  Amount Awarded: $1025.

Awarded for 2002

  1. Project Title: Structural analysis of preferred orientations of kyanite in the “log-jam” schist, Western Connecticut.  Student Investigator: Jon P. Bestine, Buffalo State College, New York.  Faculty Advisor: Gary S. Solar.  Amount Awarded: $752.16.

Grant Awarded for 2001

  1. Project Title: Comparative Detailed Mapping of Contrasting Types of Migmatite, Central Maine belt, Roxbury area, Western Maine.  Student Investigator: Sara Chmura, Buffalo State College, New York.  Faculty Advisor: Gary S. Solar.  Amount Awarded: $835.

Grant Awarded for 2000

  1. Project Title: A Field and Laboratory Study of the Deer Isle Granite, Deer Isle, Maine: Role of Mafic Intrusions during Granite Petrogenesis.  Student Investigator: Ben Johnston, University of Maine.  Faculty Advisor: Dan Lux.  Amount Awarded: $960.

Grants Awarded for 1999

  1. Project Title: Structural Characterization of the Mount Waldo Pluton and its relation to deformation along the Norumbega Fault Zone, Maine.  Student Investigator: Caitlin Callahan, Mount Holyoke Cllege.  Faculty Advisor: Michelle Markley.  Amount Awarded: $1050.
  2. Project Title: Insights into the Devonian to Pennsylvanian history of the New England Appalachians: a field investigation of the Spencer Hill Volcanics, Rhode Island.  Student Investigator: Jennifer Callahan, University of Rhode Island.  Faculty Advisor: Daniel P. Murray.  Amount Awarded: $600.