Melvin G. Marcus Memorial Fellowship | School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning

A world-renowned physical geographer and student favorite, Dr. Marcus served as faculty in ASU's Geography Department from 1974 until his death in 1997. The Fellowship is a fitting tribute to a man who thrived on fieldwork, and contributed so much to geographic research and to his students' learning.

The Scholarship Committee of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning invites applications for the Melvin G. Marcus Memorial Fellowship. The Melvin G. Marcus Fellowship supports graduate students in their field work endeavors. Award(s) will be made to graduate students in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University to support research that will culminate in an M.A. or Ph.D. degree in Geography or Ph.D. degree in Geographic Information Science at Arizona State University.

Applicants must submit the following:

Letter of recommendation from the chair of the student's supervisory committee.
Written proposal not to exceed two pages, including a project title, problem statement and the context of research, methodology and anticipated significance of the research.
An estimated budget and justification outlining how the budget will be spent. Funds may be used to support travel, purchase of data, and expendable field supplies related to the proposed research.
An unofficial copy of ASU transcript

Within nine months of receiving the award, the student must submit a 1000 word summary of findings to the Awards Committee.

Recipients must acknowledge the award in publications arising from the research, and are encouraged to present findings at the School’s Award Ceremony.

Application instructions:

Please submit a single PDF file containing all your application materials, including an unofficial copy of your ASU transcript, to [email protected] (link sends e-mail) no later than March 1. Please use the following naming convention for your application file: award - last name, first name (ex. “Marcus Memorial Fellowship – Smith, John”). When submitting, please copy and paste the name of your file into the subject line of your email.

Only complete applications submitted in accordance with the instructions will be considered by the awards committee. It is the responsibility of each applicant to ensure their application is complete and formatted as required. And please remember - if the scholarship for which you’re applying requires a letter of support from a faculty member, please let them know as soon as possible to ensure they have time to complete it.

Award amount:

Awards up to $1750 will be given.

Award Recipients:

2023-2024	Garima Jain, "'Salt in the Wound' or climate resilience: The aquaculture land transformations in storm surge affected coastal India"
2021-2022	Kenzie Shandonay, "Are the Parker Dunes Primed for Remobilization?"
2020-2021	Megan Seeley, "Quantifying Metrosideros polymorpha Phenotypes and Disease Resilience using Imaging Spectroscopy"
2019-2020	Zach Hilgendorf, "Assessing spatiotemporal trends in foredune restoration and revegetation strategies to improve coastal resiliency"
2018-2019	Puyang Li, "Modeling Land System Consequences of Estate-Smallholder Relationships in Central Tanzania"
2017-2018	Yining Tan, "Skilled US Migration to China: Transnational and Local (Im)mobility"
2016-2017	Peter Crank, "Improvement of microclimate modeling via stationary, traverse, and remotely sensed measurements" Ryan Heintzman, "Analysis of site specific microclimate variability in Joshua Tree National Park"
2015–2016	Rene Elder, “Meteorological Observation Expansion to Support Monitoring and Recovery in Trinidad, West Indies” Beth Tellman, “Biophysical Signatures of Clientelism: The Role of Legalizing Irregular Settlements in Flood Vulnerability in Mexico City”
2014–2015	Deborah Ayodele, "Water Governance in Arizona's Central Highlands: A Critical and Diagnostic Approach" Heather Fischer, "Understanding the Biodiversity Decision Making Process in Denali National Park"
2013–2014	Scott Kelley, "The importance of freeway interchanges to initial alternative fuel vehicle refueling infrastructure"
2012–2013	John Connors, "Beyond Production: Impacts of Agricultural Development on Land Use and Livelihoods in Tanzania"
2011–2012	Jesse Sayles, "Integrating landscape restoration and social network analysis to address scalar mismatches in estuaries" Kelly Turner, "An integrative analysis of master planned communities as a vehicle for urban sustainability"
2010–2011	Jonny Malloy, "Establishment of southwest winter and monsoonal climate change baseline values for Petrified Forest National Park" Scott Warren, "The transformation of place: land and life at the secondary Mexico Border"
2009–2010	Won Kyung Kim, "Delineating urban open spaces in arid and humid cities" Dorothy Ibes, "An assessment of the socio-ecological sustainability of urban parks in arid regions: an ecosystem serves approach"
2008–2009	Melinda Alexander, "Conception of Home in Refugee Art" Elizabeth Ridder, "An Analysis of the Formation of the Modern Cypriot Landscape"
2007–2008	Ann Fletchall, "The Real Orange County: Place-Making in a Mediated World" Liz Ridder, "The Effects of Political Division on Land Use/Land Cover and Biodiversity in Cyprus" Mariela Soto-Berelov, "Determining Bronze Age Human – Environmental Interaction through Vegetation Modeling in the Southern Levant (3600 – 1200 BC)"
2006–2007	Lindsey Sutton, “Place Identity and Globalization on the Border: a study of U.S. and Mexican Small Border Towns” Gabriel Judkins, “Variations of Soil Salinity in the Mexicali Valley, Mexico” Jason Kelley, “Optimization of Transportation of Products from Ecuadorian Amazon: A field Research Project”
2005–2006	Casey Allen, “Is a Threshold Involved in the Incipient Recovery of Biological Soil Crusts (BCSs) in Human Disturbances: Towards Modeling Controls on the Spatial Dynamics of BCSs”
2004–2005	Yolonda Youngs, “From Rim to River: Evolving Cultural Landscapes of Grand Canyon National Park 1908-2007”
2003–2004	Shouraseni Sen Roy, “Spatial patterns of diurnal variations in the intensity and frequency of precipitation in India” Wendy Bigler, “Geomorphic dynamism and human/environment interactions along the Middle Gila River” David Brommer, “Spatial and temporal patterns in precipitation duration across the contiguous US”
2002–2003	Daniel Gilewitch, “Tank track scars on desert pavement: An analysis of soil compaction, moisture infiltration, and desert pavement regenerative processes” Tim Hawkins, “Factors controlling snow pack evolution in Arizona”
2001–2002	Rebecca Beard, “Potential for Stream Corridor Restoration as a Response to Livestock Grazing” Alex Oberle, “Se venden acquí: Hispanic businesses as indicators of ethnic settlement in Phoenix” Kevin Romig, “New Suburbanisms: Studying the historical succession of outer Postmetropolis”
2000–2001	Neel Bhattacharjee, “The Bosnian Refugee Community of Metropolitan Phoenix” Sharolyn Anderson, “Synthesizing Spatio-Temporal Data for Detecting and Analyzing Geographic Change: A Case Study on Urban Change”
1999–2000	Mike Applegarth Paul Mannion