Funding

I received a small grant today. The Tinker Field Research Grant! At $1000, it is a relative whopper. Let me break them all down for you:

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Short-Term Fellowship -- $2800
Clark Research Support Grant -- $500
Tinker Field Research Grant -- $1000
Sigma-Xi Research Support Grant -- pending ($1000 requested)
Govindjee Research Support Grant -- pending ($1000 requested)

These are not really research grants. They exist to defray ordinary living expenses your advisor would rather die in extraordinary pain than pay. These include hostels, groceries, gasoline, bus, taxi, and airfare.

The other two grants I have pending are the big ones, applied for in November of last year, each for three-years of tuition and an annual stipend of $30k, with a one-time travel award and access to a Cray Supercomputer thrown in to spice things up. I should hear back from these sometime in April but I'm not optimistic. These are the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy's graduate research fellowships, respectively.

It's not readily appreciated just how cheaply things have to be done. I'm using the steel frame of a greenhouse I had to disassemble by hand and send up to Fortuna. I was only allowed to do this because the owner was essentially muscled into acquiescence by the co-adviser on the project, Ben Turner. Literally a steal. I bought plastic and shadecloth for about $100, all of the conetainers, racks, and tables were either sent up to Fortuna by me or fashioned out of scrapwood by Carlos on site. The microscopes and glassware I'm using are loaners, the various chemicals sum up in cost to about $850, and housing at Casa B is free. Which is why it is packed with people.

The sand, which I've mentioned earlier, is literally beach sand, sold at less than $1 / 75 lbs. I sleep in a borrowed sleeping bag. Every week Arturo and I trade off whose blood gets injected into the ink cartridge so we can continue to print things. That last one is a lie.

My point is, today is a big day for me. I just got $1000.