The Maria Sibylla Merian Research and Outreach Program provides multiple annual grant awards for undergraduate and graduate students in support of projects aimed at improving our understanding of insect biodiversity and/or supporting health of insects and their communities, with emphasis placed on conservation value and engagement with the public.
Projects
Eligible projects include research projects and/or projects in outreach and the arts.
Example topics include:
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biodiversity monitoring
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systematics and natural history
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impacts and remediation of stressors
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habitat design, restoration, and management
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science policy
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educational outreach
Students interested in pollinator-related projects should apply instead to the Apes Valentes Award Program, which has the same below criteria.
Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to apply for this grant award.
Application Process
Applications are due in early March
Projects should be conducted from May - August, with potential extension into the fall.
Please include the following in your application:
- a three-page project description
- a one-page letter of support from a faculty mentor that will oversee the project and funds
- a one-page budget with itemized expenses
- at least one proposed outreach activity related to the project
Proposed budgets may be up to $5500. The budget can include costs for undergraduate wages, travel, and materials and supplies, but cannot include graduate student stipend.
For more information about the application process, please contact program coordinator:
Heather Hines
- Interim Director, Center for Pollinator Research
- Interim Director, Insect Biodiversity Center
About Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a German entomologist, naturalist, and scientific illustrator. Merian was a pioneer and led an unconventional and independent life unlike most women of her era. She traveled to Surinam to work for two years and published volumes of her own work throughout her career. Her significant contributions to the field of entomology include observing and documenting the metamorphosis of the butterfly and her detailed illustrations of the life cycles of insects from egg to larva to pupa to adult. Through merging the arts and sciences, she has long inspired broad audiences about insects and their biology.
Jacob Marrel’s Bildnis der Maria Sibylla Merian (1679)
Credit: Wikimedia CommonsMerian is considered the “Mother of Entomology” and was one of the first naturalists to study insects considered to be economically irrelevant. Merian was born in Frankfurt, Germany, at the time a regional center of the silk trade. Because of this, silk worms were a common part of life for the people of Frankfurt, including for a young Merian who raised them and observed and recorded their metamorphisis, nearly a decade before published accounts.
Merian studied and made illustrations of life cycles of 186 insect species throughout her life, as well as illustrations of many other plant and animal species. Some of these are in two collections of engravings she published while living in Germany, Neues Blumenbuch (New Book of Flowers) and Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung (The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food), which helped to transform our understanding of insect development. She later spent some time in Suriname in South America and published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium based on observations she made there, which was the first published work on the ecology of the country.
References:
- Fessenden, M. “Meet the 17th Century Female Entomologist Who Illustrated Butterfly Life Cycles”. Smithsonian Magazine (2015)
- Tyrrell, K. “About Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)” Botanical Art & Artists (2020)
- This information was produced by Anne Johnson, a Penn State Entomology graduate student
Plate 9, Maria Sibylla Merian’s Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1730)
Credit: Wikimedia Commons