Roger Blobaum, a generous donor to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, has made funds available to help students attend organic farming conferences and present their work.

The Blobaum funds must be used to support organic farming conference travel for College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) graduate students that are engaged in organic research in CALS. Students may receive up to $750 for in-state travel and up to $1500 for out-of-state travel. Funds should be used to cover expenses related to conferences such as travel, registration, meals and lodging. The conference must take place before the end of February 2024. An undergraduate or master’s student may not receive more than two awards. A PhD student may not receive more than four awards. Undergraduate or Master’s students who continue on for a PhD at UW-Madison are limited to four awards during their combined undergraduate and graduate programs at UW Madison.

Eligibility:

•Student must be a full-time CALS Graduate Student conducting organic research (Undergraduate students may be considered for an award if they are planning to engage in organic research later in their academic career)

•The event that the student is attending must be identified as an organic farming conference (e.g. Marbleseed, OGRAIN Organic Grain Conference, WI Organic Vegetable Conference)

Application:

The below application should be completed by 5:00pm on Friday, January 19^th and sent electronically to Frankie Anderson, frankie.anderson@wisc.edu with the email subject line: “Blobaum Application – (YOUR NAME)”. A review committee composed of faculty from CALS departments will evaluate applications and make recommendations for awards.