MSI Mini-Grant Program

Jerry Soro, a postdoc from John Caroll University, received MSI mini-grant funding to study diatoms (a type of stream algae) as an indicator of pollution in the Upper Animas river.

Beginning in 2005, MSI initiated mini-grant funding for students and postdoctoral associates to conduct studies in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, USA . The goals of the program are: 1) to support the education and career development of students and recent graduates by providing research opportunities, and 2) provide needed data and information pertaining to important issues and problems in the San Juan Mountains and, more generally, for the field of mountain system science.

• Research may be in the physical, biological, or social sciences or be interdisciplinary.
• Each applicant must have an advisor who agrees to provide guidance on the project.
• Applicant must be a student at an accredited college or university or have graduated from such an institution within the past two years (recent undergraduate or master's students) or five years (postdoctoral associates).
• Research must have a major component, including field work, focused on the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, USA .
• Research must be related to at least one of the five mountain studies themes that compose MSI's "San Juan Mountain Futures" research program:
  1. Communities in Transition : Issues affecting mountain communities in transition from resource extraction to tourism and recreation economies and cultures (land use change; community planning; ecological, economic, social, and/or cultural conflicts and challenges).
  2. Climate Variability and Change : Studies of past, present, and future climate; effects of climate change on environment and/or society.
  3. Air, Ecosystems, and People: Studies of air quality and effect of pollutants on ecosystems and human health.
  4. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Studies of ecological communities, spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity, environmental controls on biodiversity, links between biodiversity and ecosystem services, value of biodiversity to society.
  5. Water for Ecosystems and People : Controls on water quantity and quality, effects of drought on ecosystems and people, other ecological or societal issues associated with water quantity and quality.

Application Deadline: March 10, 2006

Full Application Instructions

2005 Mini-grant recipients

This photo shows Shane Stadling’s mini-grant project, an experiment to test the effects of different kinds of dust on winter snow pack. The dust is blown in from desert areas to the southwest of the San Juan Mountains. Shane is a student at Fort Lewis College and is conducting his experiment in the Senator Beck Basin, a study area managed by the Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies.