Membership and Conference Registration Awards

The LSG offers two awards for students: LSG AAG Membership Award and the LSG AAG Conference Registration Award.

The purpose of these awards is to financially support students, provide opportunities to experience geographies of landscape, and increase community within the Landscape Speciality Group.  The AAG Membership Award covers the cost of AAG student membership for one year. The Conference Registration Award covers the cost of registering for the annual conference. 

Expectations:

Award winners are expected to contribute to the greater LSG community through activities and events that create an active and supportive environment for all LSG members. Awardees may contribute to the LSG community through a combination of activities, some of which are listed below.

• Assist the Awards Director and other LSG Executive Committee members at the AAG annual conference.

• Plan a Twitter Chat for GIS day. 

• Hold a writing workshop for early career researchers.

• With contributions from other LSG members, organize/create a reading list on topics of interest, for example decolonial landscape histories or remote sensing papers authored by Latinx researchers.

If awarded the Conference Registration Award, the student must plan one paper, poster, or panel session for the AAG annual conference (in person or virtually). This session may be planned with help from LSG Executive Committee members but this assistance is not required. Sessions planned with co-sponsors outside of the LSG are perfectly acceptable, as long as sessions relate to landscape.

Eligibility:

Students of all levels are eligible for both the LSG AAG Membership Award and the LSG AAG Conference Registration Award. Students must be current LSG members. 

Criteria:

Students are expected to write a motivational statement that includes:

1. A description of the student's research and relevance to landscape, 

2. A summary of the student's professional goals,

3. A statement about how this award will benefit the student’s studies, and

4. What type of activities and events they might plan and how these events will increase community.

5. Applicants for the Conference Registration Award should also describe what session they would like to plan and why (see "Expectations").

Students should also complete the online application and will be asked to include a current CV/resume.

To apply:

We encourage all applicants to review the mission of the LSG and the award types and criteria before applying. 

A complete application includes three parts:

1. Online application (Membership Award and/or Conference Registration Award),

2. Motivational statement, and

3. CV/resume.

Your motivational statement and CV/resume can both be uploaded through the online application or they can be emailed to both Chang Zhao (LSG Program Director) at changzhao@ufl.edu and Wenxin Yang (Awards Committee member) at wenxinyang@ucsb.edu. Please include the name of the award you are applying for and your last name in your email subject (“LSG AAG Membership Award Zhao”). 

**PLEASE NOTE: We currently are only accepting applications for the Membership Award.

All materials for the  Membership Award  should be submitted no later than Friday, July 18, 2025, 10 p.m. ET. 

Evaluation:

Applicants will be evaluated based on their motivational statement and their CV/resume in accordance with their level (undergraduate vs. masters vs. PhD students). Students who clearly demonstrate an interest in the LSG and furthering community will be scored highly. Preference will be given to those students who have not been awarded funding previously and to students from marginalized groups. The rubric on which applicants will be scored can be found here.

Questions should be submitted to Chang and Wenxin at the email addresses above, or to LSG's chair, Meredith Whitten, at meredith.whitten@ucl.ac.uk.