William G. McGinnies Graduate Scholarship in Arid Lands Studies

A Graduate Scholarship in Arid Lands Studies was established in 1985 by the faculty of the Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona, in honor of Dr. William G. McGinnies, our founder. The intent of the McGinnies Graduate Scholarship is to provide additional support to graduate students whose dissertation research concerns physical and biological processes in the world's arid and semiarid lands. The annual scholarship award varies by year, but is typically around $2500. The winner will also give the annual McGinnies lecture to the SNRE community.

For more information on McGinnies and his work, see A Tribute to William G. McGinnies and this 1965 AZ Daily Star article.

Application & eligibility

All application materials must be submitted no later than 11:59pm, April 1, 2024. Please register/apply in Scholarship Universe AND ALSO send application materials to the SNRE business office (bizsnre@cals.arizona.edu).

  • Applicants must be currently enrolled University of Arizona doctoral students from any program
  • The recipient’s eligibility will be confirmed by the Office of Student Financial Aid.
  • Filing a FAFSA is recommended but not required.
  • Students must be enrolled through fall 2023 or later.

Award is made on the basis of materials submitted by applicants, which (1) indicates their achievements and future as scholars, and (2) demonstrates significant contribution of ongoing research to understanding environmental processes and informing management of arid and semiarid lands.

Applicants should apply through Scholarship Universe as well as submit the application materials listed below by the deadline.  For tips on how to get connected to this and other scholarships, please use the CALES How-To-Apply Guide.

Applications should consist of (1) a letter of application of no more than 1000 words describing the student's research interests, their achievements to-date, and a concise description of their dissertation research and its broader relevance; (2) a curriculum vitae; and (3) two letters of recommendation (including one from the major advisor). It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that letters are received before the application deadline.

See list of previous recipients below, with their dissertation topics, subsequent careers, and current whereabouts.

Name & Position Institution Year won & Department Title/Subject of Dissertation
Sonia Delphin-Perez
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2021
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Land-use planning as a tool to promote sustainable development
Matt Roby
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2020
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
How changes in the supply and demand of water on a warming planet impact ecosystem productivity, the source of food and fiber in drylands
Xian Wang
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2019
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Advancing our understanding of dryland carbon uptake using novel remote sensing techniques
Amy Hudson
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2018
School of Natural Resources and the Environment/Laboratory of Tree Ring Research
Winds above as seen by plants below: the jet stream as a framework for dryland vegetation variability
Joshua Scholl
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2018
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Why do some organisms produce morphologically different offspring at the same time?
Erik Andersen
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2017
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Effects of Plant Invasions on Birds Breeding in Desert Grasslands
Martha Gebhardt
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2017
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Linking Imaging Spectroscopy and Microbial Biogeochemistry to Understand the Causes and Consequences of Shrub Encroachment
Mallory Barnes Ph.D. Candidate University of Arizona Year Won: 2016
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Drought in semi-arid ecosystems impacts carbon uptake and vegetation productivity across spatial and temporcal scales.
Chris Guiterman
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2015
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Fire, land-use, and forest resilience in the US Southwest: Dendrochronology and applied historical ecology.
Erin Zylstra
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2014
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Population dynamics of amphibians in desert mountain canyons.
Zack Guido
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2013
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Informing Climate Adaptation: Climate Impacts on Glacial Systems and the Role of Information Brokering in Climate Services.
Daniel Griffin
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2012
Department of Geography
Dissertation: North American monsoon paleoclimatology from tree rings.
Nick McKay
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2011
Department of Geosciences
Dissertation: A multidisciplinary approach to Late Quaternary paleoclimatology on interannual to orbital timescales.
Henry Adams
Ph.D. Candidate (May 2011)
University of Arizona Year Won: 2010
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Global change and drought-induced tree mortality: temperature sensitivity, mechanism, and ecohydological implications.
Toby Ault
Post-Doctoral Fellow
National Center for Atmospheric Research Year Won: 2009
Department of Geosciences
Dissertation: The continuum of drought in western North America.
Jeremy L. Weiss
Ph.D. Candidate (May 2011)
University of Arizona Year Won: 2009
Department of Geosciences
Dissertation: Spatiotemporal Measures of Exposure and Sensitivity to Climatic Variability and Change: The Cases of Modern Sea Level Rise and Southwestern U.S. Bioclima
Deanna Grimstead
Ph.D. Candidate (Dec. 2011)
University of Arizona Year Won: 2008
Department of Anthropology
Dissertation: Population Aggregation, Biodeterioration, and Abrupt Climate Change: A Case Study of Human Extensification in Northwestern New Mexico.
Katharine Gerst
Research Associate
University of Arizona Year Won: 2007
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: The Influence of Biogeography and Mating System on the Ecology of Desert Annual Plants
Dawn Browning
Research Physical Scientist
USDA-ARS, Las Cruces Year Won: 2007
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Woody plant dynamics in a Sonoran Desert ecosystem across scales: Remote sensing and historic field perspectives
Adrian Munguia Vega
Ph.D. Student
University of Arizona Year Won: 2006 School of Natural Resources and the Environment Dissertation: Habitat fragmentation in the Baja California Peninsula and its effects on the genetic structure of four endemic vertebrates with contrasting dispersal behaviour.
Kimberly A. Franklin
Conservation Research Scientist
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Year Won: 2005
Insect Science Interdisciplinary Program
Dissertation: The consequences of buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) development for biodiversity in the southern Sonoran Desert.
Charles A. Price
Assistant Professor
School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia Year Won: 2005
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Scaling the diversity of botanical form and function.
Jessica M. Cable
Research Scientist
Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Year Won: 2004
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Precipitation Effects on Soil Carbon Cycling in the Sonoran Desert.
Camille Holmgren
Ph.D. Student
The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Year Won: 2003
Department of Geosciences Desert Botanical Laboratory
Dissertation: Discovering the Late Quaternary vegetation and climatic history of the Southwestern U.S.-Mexico Borderlands from fossil rodent middens.
Nathan B. English
Adjunct Faculty
School of Earth & Environmental Science, James Cook University, Townesville, Australia Year Won: 2003
Department of Geosciences
Dissertation: Physiological basis of isotopic variation in giant saguaro: Are responses to climate recorded in spines?
David Patrick Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University Year Won: 2002
Geography and Regional Development
Dissertation: Analyzing the nature and causes of winter season precipitation variability within the Southwest United States.
Erika Geiger
Supervisory Biologist
Canyonlands Research Station U.S. Geological Survey Year Won: 2002
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: The influence of fire and nonnative grasses on native grassland communities.
Andrea Litt
Assistant Professor
Department of Ecology, Montana State University Year Won: 2001
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Interactions of fire and lovegrass invasion and the concomitant effects on small mammals and invertebrates using a long-term manipulative field experiment at Fort Huachuca Military Reservation
Timothy Shanahan
Assistant Professor
University of Texas Year Won: 2001
Department of Geosciences
Dissertation: Reconstructing a long-term, high-resolution record of aridity and dust production in the West African Sahel and the Sahara from lacustrine sediments from Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana
Kevin Hultine
Post Doctoral Research Associate
The University of Utah, Department of Biology Year Won: 2000
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: The interaction between the hydrology of riparian ecosystems and the distribution and function of plant root systems
Tamara Wilson
Geographer
U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park Year Won: 2000
Geography and Regional Development
Dissertation: The use of packrat midden analysis in the reconstruction of vegetation history from central Baja, California
Juliann Eve Aukema
Conservation Biologist
Aukema Conservation Science Year Won: 1999
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: The dispersal and spatial patterns of the parasitic desert mistletoe and their relationship with their host trees and the birds that disperse their seeds.
Donald A. Falk
Professor
The University of Arizona, School of Natural Resources and the Environment Year Won: 1998
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Forest Ecology
Keirith Snyder
Plant Physiologist
USDA-ARS, Jornada Experimental Range Year Won: 1997
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Mechanisms that determine woody species distribution in semi-arid riparian areas and root allocation patterns of different functional types
Elise Pendall
Assistant Professor
The University of Wyoming Department of Botany Year Won: 1996
Geosciences
Dissertation: Effects of climatic seasonality on the stable isotopic composition of plant cellulose and potential for paleoclimatic reconstruction
Maria J. Clauss Department of Genetics and Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Year Won: 1995
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Evolution of life history strategies of plants
Jake F. Weltzin
Executive Director
USA-National Phenology Network Year Won: 1994
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Ecology of semi-desert grasslands and savannahs
Sharon Helen Blendenbender
Invasive Species Coordinator
USDA Forest Service, Coronado National Forest Year Won: 1993
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Germination requirements of Arizona native perennial grasses and their establishment in existing stands of Eragrostis lehmanniana Nees
Franco Biondi
Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Geography
University of Nevada, Reno Department of Geography Year Won: 1992
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Dissertation: Spatial and temporal reconstruction of twentieth century growth trends in a naturally seeded pine forest
Peter K. Van de Water
Assistant Professor
Department of Earth & Environmental Science, California State University, Fresno Year Won: 1991
Geosciences
Dissertation: Morphological changes in Pinus flexilis needles across the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary due to atmospheric carbon dioxide increases
Catherine E. Pake
Biology Instructor
Portland Community College
Biology and Environmental Science
Rock Creek Campus
Year Won: 1990
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Sonoran Desert annual plants: Empirical tests of models of coexistence and persistence in a temporally variable environment
Marissa Pantastico
Biology and Microbiology Faculty
Los Angeles Trade Technical College Year Won: 1989
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Competition in desert winter annuals: Effects of spatial and temporal variation
Gordon A. Fox
Assistant Professor
The University of South Florida
Department of Biology & Department of Environmental Science & Policy
Year Won: 1988
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Adaptation, history, and development in the evolution of a desert annual life history
Michael J. Sanderson
Professor
University of Arizona, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Year Won: 1988
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Patterns of homoplasy in North American Astragalus
Judith Xiutzal Becerra
Associate Research Professor
The University of Arizona, Ecology & Evolutionary Behavior Year Won: 1987
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: Adaptations to ecological interaction
James R. Malusa
Research Specialist, Principal
The University of Arizona, School of Natural Resources and the Environment Year Won: 1986
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dissertation: The phylogeny and water relations of pinyon in relation to the vicariance biogeography of the Southwest
Julio L. Betancourt
Senior Scientist; Professor
U.S. Geological Survey; Dept. of Geosciences, School of Geography & Regional Development, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, School of Natural Resources & Environment, University of Arizona Year Won: 1985
Geosciences
Dissertation: Tucson's Santa Cruz River and the arroyo legacy
William G McGinnies with Julio Betancourt

William G McGinnies (right) with Julio Betancourt, first winner of the McGinnies Graduate Scholarship, 1985

Julio Betancourt receiving an award

Julio Betancourt (left) selected as an AGU Fellow receiving an award from the Tom Grove President of the American Geophysical Union, 2019.