Jocelyn Bell-Burnell and ICASU Travel Award

ICASU and the UIUC Astronomy department are pleased to present the first annual Jocelyn Bell Burnell Travel Award, which provides $500 to support student travel to present their research findings at conferences and workshops. In the generous spirit of the award's namesake, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who donated her ICASU speaker stipend so that we could support scientific access, this award is focused on supporting productive and civic-minded students who have fewer opportunities and resources to share their findings with the scientific community. Due to a generous gift from both the Astronomy and Physics departments, ICASU anticipates awarding two fellowships this year, which may be used towards travel at any time in the following twelve months after receiving the award.

The evaluation criteria will be based on scientific merit of the research presentation and relevance to the ICASU mission, the impact on and uniqueness of this opportunity for the student, and the broader impacts contributions of the awardee. The awards will be available to undergraduate and graduate students, who will be evaluated together based on the same criteria.

The deadline application for the 2025 Jocelyn Bell-Burnell and ICASU Travel Award is May 19, 2025.

Your cover page should be combined with statements into a single pdf file with the name: JBBTravelAwardApp_[your_last_name]_[your_first_name]_2025.pdf

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Travel Award Details

The travel award will provide $500 each to two student applicants towards travel to one conference or workshop within twelve months of the award date.

Application Materials:

Personal Information

The application form will request your name, UIN, email, program of study, and your year.

Cover page

The cover page should be limited to about half a page, and it should contain the following information:

If possible, which workshop/conference will you be attending, when will it be held, where will it be held, and how much will travel to this workshop/conference cost.
Whether you are supported by a grant with support for workshop/conference travel and if you are otherwise financially supported to travel to this workshop/conference.

Statements

Your application should include written responses to each of the following three prompts:

In 400 words or less, please describe the research you will be presenting and how that research is related to the mission of ICASU.
In 300 words or less, please describe how receiving an award to travel to this conference/workshop will enable your professional development in a way that would otherwise be unavailable to you.
In 300 words or less, please describe how receiving this award or your activities will have a broader impact on our community and increase access to science.

Answers must be written by the applicant and cannot be generated or assisted by artificial intelligence.

Letter of Endorsement

Once you submit your complete application, the system will automatically send an email request to one faculty member people that you select (you will be asked to input their email addresses), requesting that they write a short letter of endorsement as to the authenticity of the contents of your application. Your endorser must be a UIUC faculty member who is familiar with your research and your broader impacts contributions. Please share your cover letter and statements with your reference before submitting their name into the application form and ask your reference to upload their endorsement letter before the application deadline.

Questions can be directed to Professor Nicolás Yunes at nyunes@illinois.edu.