The Futures Initiative is pleased to announce the first annual Dr. Louise Lennihan Arts & Sciences Grant Competition. Thanks to a generous gift from Curtis Wong, recipient of an honorary degree from the Graduate Center in 2016, as well as a matching grant from Microsoft, the competition honors Dr. Lennihan for her extraordinary service on behalf of students and faculty at the Graduate Center. Four (4) micro grants in the amount of $500 for research or travel related to the intersections of humanities, arts, science, and technology will be awarded to eligible doctoral students at the Graduate Center each year for the next five years.

Applications for this year’s awards are due on October 24, 2016. Funds will be distributed in early January, 2017. Apply today!

Curtis Wong (Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, Graduate Center, CUNY, awarded 2016), principal researcher at Microsoft Research, is an inventor and creator devoted to the future of digital media and interactive media for learning. His recent work has included leading Microsoft’s interactive spatial-temporal data visualization efforts in Excel which allows users to gain insight from the patterns of data rendered on a map over time. In 2008, he fulfilled a long-held dream: leading the vision for the WorldWide Telescope, a free, rich interactive virtual simulation that allows children of all ages to explore and understand the universe. He hopes that the Louise Lennihan Arts & Sciences Student Grants can help students to further their research.

Louise Lennihan served as Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Graduate Center from 2013 to 2016. In this role, Dr. Lennihan served as the principal academic officer of the Graduate Center, ensuring the quality and performance of all the degree-granting programs. Prior to becoming Interim Provost, she served as Associate Provost and Dean for Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Lennihan joined the department of Anthropology at Hunter College in 1982 and has been a member of the Graduate Center doctoral faculty since 1987, serving as the Executive Officer of the Ph.D. Program in Anthropology from 1997-2008. Trained as a cultural anthropologist at Columbia University with a focus on West Africa, Dr. Lennihan has published widely on topics related to her archival and field research in northern Nigeria.

Eligibility:  All applicants must be Ph.D. students in good standing, at any stage of their career, in any field. Preference will be given to late-stage candidates of their PhD program who are making satisfactory and timely progress towards completing their degrees.

Topics eligible for funding:  Support for research or travel related to the intersections of humanities, arts, science, and technology.

Support of $500 to be used for travel to a conference, workshop, research center, library, archive, or technology center to present or pursue additional research on a topic related to the intersections of humanities, arts, science, and technology.

Please contact futuresinitiative@gc.cuny.edu with questions.

**Apply here by October 24, 2016.**