Freedman Prize for Student-Faculty Research
The Freedman Prize, established by Allen and Judy Freedman in 2002.
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In recognizing superior student-faculty collaborative work that can prepare for a senior project, two Freedman Prize Award opportunities are offered.
The Freedman Prize Award in Applied Geosciences is open to all STEM majors, and the Open Freedman Prize Award is open to all students.
Because this work can begin as early as the student’s first year on campus, the competition is open to students in all four classes.
Proposals will be evaluated by a committee composed of three faculty members on merit value, content, and feasibility, and then ranked. The strongest proposals will be called for verbal interviews with the committee members. The finalists will be determined by the Freedman Program Coordinator based on the evaluation provided by the committee.
Freedman Prize Award in Applied Geosciences
PROPOSAL DEADLINE: The 2025 competition is coming soon. Stay tuned!
Apply by completing the the Google From link below. Upload your budget as a separate document. Read the Required Contents of the Proposal Instructions to be sure you provide all necessary information when completing the online proposal form.
Description & Eligibility: Applied Geosciences
Applied Geoscience is when geological principles and methods are used to answer/solve research questions/problems. It is an interdisciplinary field that aids in solving problems related to the environment and its human inhabitants. Applied Geoscience Projects can include but are not limited to various subfields of geology, water, climate, soil, and environmental sciences, biogeochemistry, geobiology, geomicrobiology, clay mineralogy and its applications to the arts, resource management, and implementations of renewable technologies and sustainability.
This competition is open only to students majoring in one of the STEM fields at Hartwick College. Applicants have to be full-time students in good academic standing without holds on their student accounts. The proposed project has to fit within an accepted field of applied geosciences, and involve original research, and the applicant has to work in collaboration with a faculty mentor (evidence supplied by a submitted commitment letter).
The award consists of a research grant of up to $5000 in support of the project. The Freedman Committee encourages proposals with smaller budgets as well. The final number of awardees will be determined based on the requested and available dollar amounts.
The proposal will be evaluated by a committee on merit value, content, and feasibility, then ranked. The strongest proposals will be called for verbal interviews in early March. The finalists will be notified by the end of April, and are expected to present the research findings at the Annual Student Showcase of Hartwick College.
The proposal should follow the provided guidelines in the instructions as closely as possible and submit all required components for full consideration.
Open Freedman Prize Award for All Majors
PROPOSAL DEADLINE: The 2025 competition is coming soon. Stay tuned!
Apply by completing the the Google From link below. Upload your budget as a separate document. Read the Required Contents of the Proposal Instructions to be sure you provide all necessary information when completing the online proposal form.
DESCRIPTION AND ELIGIBILITY: Open to All Majors
All Students (any majors) at Hartwick College are eligible to apply for the Open Freedman Prize who are in good academic standing without holds on their student accounts. However, the proposed project has to involve original research, and the applicant has to have a faculty collaborator/mentor (supported by a submitted commitment letter).
The award consists of a research grant of up to $2000 in support of the project. The Freedman Committee encourages proposals with smaller budgets as well. The final number of awardees will be determined based on the requested and available dollar amounts.
The proposal will be evaluated by a committee on merit value, content, and feasibility, then ranked. The strongest proposals will be called for verbal interviews in March. The finalists will be notified by the end of April, and are expected to present the research findings at the Annual Student Showcase of Hartwick College.
The proposal should follow the provided guidelines in the instructions as closely as possible and submit all required components for full consideration.
Using funding from the Freedman Prize for Applied Geosciences, Alyssa Schaeffer ’24 and her research advisor Dr. David Griffing were able to travel to the Turks and Caicos Islands in January 2024 to study exceptionally-preserved reef and shoreline fossils from Late Pleistocene time (about 125,000 years ago). This is a new extension of research conducted by Griffing on past climate-driven environmental changes in the islands of the Bahamas.
Schaeffer and Griffing explored several potential locations for research on the island of Providenciales before favorable weather conditions allowed them to travel by boat to uninhabited West Caicos Island – the location of unparalleled exposures of rocks of Late Pleistocene age. These deposits record the last natural time of global warming, when sea-levels were several meters higher than present day.
Schaeffer and Griffing measured the exposures at Boat Cove on West Caicos Island in detail and believe that Ophiomorpha may more accurately constrain peak sea-level during that time than use of the fossil corals.
Freedman Prize Recipients
2024-2025 Freedman Prize Award in Applied Geoscience Recipients
- Sierra Brown ’25: Biology; Establishing isolates from the marine crustal biosphere; Advisor: Dr. Carr
- Adrianna Dugan ’25: Chemistry & Music; Estimating Fungal Biomass through Ergosterol Quantification; Advisor: Dr. Balogh-Brunstad
- Hannah Makuch ’26: Biology; and Makenna Ventuleth ’27, Biology; Fungal Community Profiles of Bald Cypress in the Four Rivers Basin, Kentucky; Advisors: Dr. Balogh-Brunstad & Dr. Carr
2024-2025 Open Freedman Prize Award Recipients
- Will Brouillette ’25: Environment, Sustainability, and Society; Heavy Metals in the Charlotte Creek Watershed, New York; Advisor: Dr. Balogh-Brunstad
- Dylan Dwyer ’26: Biology & Psychology; Caffeine and confidence: Caffeine’s effect on self-esteem, self-efficacy, and metacognition of agency; Advisors: Dr. Kowalczyk & Dr. Depperman
- Peyton Humphries ’25: Geology; Assessment of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Levels in the Charlotte Creek Watershed, New York; Advisor: Dr. Balogh-Brunstad
- Dahlia Landry ’26: Biology; Establishing isolates from the continental crust of the CUBO; Advisor: Dr. Carr
2023-2024 Freedman Award in Applied Geoscience Recipients
*Awarded in 2022-23 but is being executed in 23-24 AY.
- Josephine Becker ’25: History & Anthropology; Funko Landfill Reconnaissance; Advisor: Dr. Namita Sugandhi
- Megan Bryla ’26: Art, French, & ENSS and Ella Van Engen, ’25: Art & Psychology; Clay Cooking Pots & Material Science; Advisors: Professor Rozene & Dr. Balogh-Brunstad
- Cassidy Markel ’26: Geology; Effect of Water and Nutrient Availability on Ectomycorrhizal Weathering of Minerals; Advisor: Dr. Balogh-Brunstad
- ChawAkari San ’24: Biochemistry; Riboswitches of the Oceanic Crust; Advisor: Dr. Carr
- Alyssa Schaeffer* ’24: Geology; Fossil coral preservation in the Pleistocene coral reefs at Devil’s Point, Great Inagua, Bahamas; Advisor: Dr. Griffing
2022-2023 Freedman Award in Applied Geoscience Recipients
- Autumn Pope ’23: Biology; Understanding type-IV filament appendages in the marine subsurface, Advisor: Dr. Carr
- Nicole Casab ’23: Biology, Investigating the Geochemistry of Basement Fluids from a Deep Borehole at Cornell University. Advisor: Dr. Carr
- Alyssa Schaeffer ’24: Geology, Fossil coral preservation in the Pleistocene coral reefs at Devil’s Point, Great Inagua, Bahamas. Advisor: Dr. Griffing
2020 Freedman Award in Applied Geoscience Recipients
- Gerald Meyer ’23: An Investigation to Classify a Northwestern African Meteorite. Project Advisor: Dr. Eric L. Johnson.
- Tarrah Skye Smith ’21: Effect of Buffer Zones on Local Creek Water Quality. Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad.
2019 Freedman Award in Applied Geoscience Recipients
- Tylisha Gourdine ’20: Investigating metabolisms of microbial dark matter organisms in the crustal subsurface environment of Juan de Fuca Ridge. Project Advisor: Dr. Stephanie Carr.
- Brynn Marion ’20: Origins of marble corestone weathering in Northern New York. Project Advisor: Dr. David Griffing.
- Maxwell Pizarro ’20: Mineralogy and chemical change over a deformation gradient using a metagabbro from Dana Hill in the Adirondack Lowlands. Advisor: Dr. Eric L. Johnson.
Questions?
Contact Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad ([email protected]).