The Lincoln S and Sarah W. Hollister Graduate Student Research Awards Fund, established in 2022, is to support research grants to graduate students working on field-based theses and dissertations that use the tools of metamorphic petrology for understanding the formation of continental crust. Tools include, but are not limited to, phase equilibria based on data obtained with the electron microprobe or SEM/EDS, radiometric analysis, ductile deformation including data from EBSD, fluid inclusions, trace element analysis, and crustal seismology. As relevant, the awards will seek to enhance the recipient's ability to reach remote regions and to conduct research in the safest manner possible.
About Lincoln S. Hollister.
Lincoln S. Hollister is Professor Emeritus of Geosciences at Princeton University and one of the leading metamorphic petrologists and tectonic geologists of the past half-century. Throughout a career spanning more than five decades, his research has focused on one of the fundamental questions in Earth science: How are mountains built and continental crust formed? By integrating field geology, metamorphic petrology, structural geology, geochemistry, and geophysics, Hollister developed new ways of interpreting the pressure–temperature–time histories recorded in metamorphic rocks, revealing the processes that shape Earth's crust during continental collision and mountain building.
After earning his A.B. in geology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in geology and geochemistry from the California Institute of Technology, Hollister joined Princeton's faculty in 1968, where he remained until becoming Professor Emeritus in 2011. His pioneering field investigations in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, together with later work in Bhutan and the Himalayas, transformed understanding of crustal evolution and the tectonic processes responsible for major mountain belts. His studies of metamorphic mineral zoning, fluid inclusions, and crustal exhumation helped establish modern interpretations of metamorphic processes and challenged long-held assumptions about chemical equilibrium in rocks.
Hollister also played a central role in the multidisciplinary ACCRETE and BATHOLITHS research programs, which combined petrology, structural geology, geochemistry, and seismic imaging to investigate how island arcs evolve into mature continental crust. His work on Apollo lunar samples further extended his influence to planetary geology, demonstrating how mineral textures preserve the cooling histories of lunar basalts. Throughout his career, he has been recognized as an innovator, introducing new analytical techniques and fostering collaborations across scientific disciplines.
Hollister has trained generations of geoscientists through classroom instruction and extensive field programs. His scientific achievements have been recognized by election as a Fellow of both the Mineralogical Society of America and the Geological Society of America, and by the naming of the mineral hollisterite, Al₃Fe found in fragments of the Khatyrka meteorite, in his honor.
Applying for a grant.
To be considered for a Lincoln S and Sarah W. Hollister Graduate Student Research Grant, candidates should submit a research proposal to GSA’s Graduate Student Research Grants program. Each year, GSA generally accepts proposals from 1 December through 1 February. The proposals to be considered for a grant are forwarded to the Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology, and Volcanology (MGPV) Division of GSA. Criteria for selection by MGPV - how well the proposal integrates and depend on a range of geology (field) evidence that may be combined with lab work or modeling to answer the posed question or select the samples. Will the study would make an important or interesting contribution. Will the techniques to be used have a good chance of answering the question(s) posed.
Awardees (2022-)
2026
Amna Afzal, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA for her project: Tracing Atmospheric Sources of PFAS in Rainwater Using LC–MS/MS and HYSPLIT Modeling. (description & biography)
Payal Banerjee, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA for her project: Constraining evaporation conditions of Persian Gulf using Triple Oxygen Isotopes of carbonates. (description & biography)
Barrett Gibbs, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana, USA for their project: Determining Thallium Isotope Signatures throughout Brassica juncea through MC-ICPMS. (description & biography)
Carly Ross, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA for their project: Diffusion Modeling and Crystal Cluster Petrography of the 1997 eruption at Okmok Volcano, Alaska. (description & biography)
Amelia Wilson-Jackson, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA for their project: Investigating How Iron–DOM Controls on Carbon Export from Drained, Restored, and Rewetted Wetlands. (description & biography)
Shaun Woudstra, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for his project: Identifying the most hazardous volcanoes in northern British Columbia. (description & biography)
Yakov Yermakov, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA for their project: Understanding Pre-Eruptive Magmatic Processes at the Socorro Caldera Complex Using Zircon Geochronol. (description & biography)
2025
Sofía Jiménez Barranco, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico for their project Sr and O Isotopes in Epidote: Tracing Fluid-Rock Interaction in Subduction Zones.. (description & biography)
Sarah Brandt, The University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA for her project Petrology of the Syke Rock garnet amphibolite, Franciscan Complex (Mendocino County, CA). (description & biography)
Nicole Ferrie, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA for her project A Predictive Model of Dewatering in Shallow Subduction Complexes. (description & biography)
Nandana Goswami, University of South Carolina, Columbia, Columbia, SC, USA for her project Determining paleo-crustal thickness of the Pikwitonei Granulite Domain. (description & biography)
Kathleen Stepien, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA for herproject Evidence for fluid flow in the Tianshan subduction complex from analysis of hydrogen in garnet. (description & biography)
2024
Ahmed Abdelrahman, Oklahoma State University, Stoillwater, OK, for their project Building the Geological History of Zalingei Fold Belt (ZFB): Implications for Precambrian (?) Northern Africa Tectonics. (description & biography)
Bry McKay, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, for their project Quantifying post-emplacement crystallization of quartz-hosted melt inclusions restoring the emplacement history of co-erupted units. (description & biography)
Sithari Nanayakkara Keppiti Duwage, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, for their project Re-evaluation of oriented and faceted inclusions in Garnet as indicators of Ultrahigh Pressure/ Temperature metamorphism. (description & biography)
2023
Michael Barnard, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, for his project Elucidating Environments of Tourmalinization for Paleoproterozoic Tourmalinites from the Tusas Mountains, New Mexico. (description)
2022
Juan felipe Bustos Moreno, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, for his project: Carbon mobility in subduction zone metamorphism: Evidence from HP/UHP Meta-Ophiolitic Breccias in the Western Alps (description)
Peter Lindquist, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, for his project: Tracking the history of metamorphic dehydration in the Catalina Schist (description)
Julisan Street, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, for her project: High-Temperature Granulite Metamorphism in Southwestern USA (description)