Peter White Scholar Program

In order to facilitate significant enhancement of scholarly research at Northern Michigan University, the Peter White Fund annually supports the Peter White Scholar Award. The Peter White Scholar Award is intended to support faculty and department heads with a proven scholarly record who are undertaking a project that would significantly advance their work. Thus, projects funded by this award are intended to go above and beyond those funded under the Faculty Grants program.

The Peter White Scholar will:

  1. Engage in scholarly research and/or creative activities
  2. Prepare one or more works for publication or presentation and
  3. Develop applications for external funding

In addition, the Scholar is expected to present an open colloquium on the results of the year’s work and submit a Final Report within one month after the end date of the award.

DEADLINE: 3/5/2027; MAX AWARD: $17,500

Application instructions graphic

GUIDELINES
SAMPLE CV
BUDGET JUSTIFICATION TEMPLATE
EVALUATION CRITERIA
SAMPLE PROPOSALS *Note that the guidelines may have changed since these proposals were awarded

Eligibility graphic

All full-time faculty and department heads who will be teaching during the next academic year (those who have an employment contract such that they would normally teach the year after the application year) are eligible to apply for the award. Part-time, contingent, or adjunct faculty; administrative or support staff; and students are not eligible. Faculty and staff who believe that a colleague is especially qualified should submit a nomination to the Dean of Graduate Studies & Research at least one month prior to the application deadline. The Dean will contact the nominated individual to notify them of the nomination.

A faculty member or department head who has received a Peter White Scholar Award is eligible to reapply for the same award after a five-year interim period. Questions regarding eligibility should be directed to the Dean of Graduate Studies & Research.

Submission instructions graphic

Applicants must complete their application through the Cayuse platform. You will find instructions for submitting on this linked Cayuse platform page.

Department head and dean signatures approving the submission will be collected by the Cayuse system after submission. The submission is due by the deadline; the approvals can come afterwards.

Each Peter White Scholar must file a Final Project Report by June 30 following the 12-month grant period. All funds must be encumbered on or before the end of the one-year award period.

The Scholar is also expected to present a colloquium on the year’s work to the university community at the annual Peter White Award Banquet.

FINAL REPORT GUIDELINES FOR NMU INTERNAL GRANTS

If a PI would like to request a No-Cost Extension, this No-Cost Extension form must be submitted at least 15-calendar days prior to the end of the project period.

The evaluation rubric used by the Faculty Grants Committee can be downloaded here. The Committee will make recommendations to the Dean of Graduate Education and Research. It is within the Committee’s purview to recommend that no award be made. Proposals from eligible applicants will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Scholarly significance
  • The soundness of the project plan
  • Impact of the anticipated outcomes
  • Research productivity of the investigator
  • Appropriateness of the budget justification.

Voting Policy:  Each proposal must be read and evaluated by a minimum of five (5) voting members of the Faculty Grants Committee. In the event that less than five committee members are available for grant assessment, alternate committee members will be called upon to fill in. Committee members who have a grant under consideration will be excluded from any deliberations concerning the Peter White Scholar Program. Alternates will take the place of these members. Ex officio committee members may contribute to discussions, but will not take part in the actual ranking of proposals.

Past Awards

Matt Frank

Department: English

Project Title: Painting an Expressionless Boy: A Hybrid Work of Poetry and Essay

Maris Cinelli

Department: Chemistry 

Project Title: Antibiotics, Alkaloids, and Analytical Chemistry: Do Traditional Plant-Based Medicines

Hold the Key to New Antibiotics?

Sarah Mittelfehldt

Department: Earth, Environment, and Geographical Studies

Project Title: Biofuels & Btus: The Development of Upper Peninsula Forests as Energy Resources 

Diana Lafferty

Department: Biology

Project Title: Carnivore Gut Microbiome Dynamics

 - NO AWARDS GIVEN -

John Bruggink

Department: Biology

Project Title: Homesite Ecology Of Gray Wolves In The Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem

Russell Prather

Department: English

Project Title: Three Solo Exhibitions, Three Group Exhibitions, a Scholarly Paper and a Funded Residency

Joshua Carlson

Department: Psychological Science

Project Title: Testing for Neuroplastic Changes in an Extended Amygdala Network as a Target Mechanism for Attention Bias Modification Outcome

Gabriel Brahm

Department:  English

Project Title: The New Culture Wars on Campus: Academic Freedom and the “Jewish Question”

Matthew Gavin Frank

Department:  English

Project Title: The role of carrier pigeons in the illicit global diamond smuggling trade: A book length essay

Lesley Larkin

Department: English

Project Title: Reading in the Postgenomic Age

Zac Cogley

Department:  Philosophy

Project Title: Anger is a gift: How psychology and ethics illuminate moral responsibility

Marek Haltof

Department:  English

Project Title: Screening Auschwitz: Wanda Jakubowska’s The Last Stage (1948) and the Politics of Commemoration

Jaspal Singh

Department:  English

Project Title: Imagining Nations and Homelands: Gender and Sikh Identity in Indian and Diasporic Literature

 - NO AWARDS GIVEN -

James McCommons

Department:  English

Project Title: Biography of George Shiras III: World’s First Wildlife Photographer

John Smolens

Department: English

Project Title: The Schoolmaster’s Daughter, A Novel

Neil Cumberlidge

Department: Biology

Project Title: The Freshwater Crabs of Eastern Africa: production of a major taxonomic revision using advances in biodiversity informatics. 

Stephen Burn

Department: English

Project Title: Neurofiction: Contemporary American Fiction and the Brain

Robert Whalen

Department: English

Project Title: The Digital Temple 

J. Marek Haltof

Department: English

Project Title: The Holocaust in Polish Film: Uncovering the Path

Osvaldo J. Lopez

Department: Biology

Project Title: Towards a vaccine against the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Virus (PRRSV): Using vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and lactic-elevating dehydrogenase virus (LDV) as models in mice.

 

Neil Russel

Department: Physics

Project Title: (Unknown)

 

Suzanne Williams

Department: Chemistry

Project Title: Using biocalorimetry to investigate proteins that are markers for the onset or progression of Alzheimer’s disease.