L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant
The 2012-13 application will be available beginning Summer 2012. Bookmark this website for further updates. The application will be online starting this year. Please make sure your Faculty Advisor is up-to-date on AAPG member dues before the Student Chapter applies.
The L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant Program supports educational expenses of undergraduate geoscience students and the departments of their school or university. Funding is provided through a generous endowment gift from L. Austin Weeks to the AAPG Foundation.
Undergraduate earth science majors need to be members of Student Chapters. AAPG membership is not required.
Grants Size and Usage
The disbursement of the grant will consist of a maximum amount of $1,000 per qualified student chapter. Half of the grant ($500) will be given to a qualified undergraduate student. The remaining will be given to the geoscience department, and should be used to support educational activities of the Student Chapter, i.e. for equipment, conferences or field trips.
Chapter Requirements
Applications will be accepted for the L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant from chapters who meet the following requirements listed below. Additional details of the Chapter requirements can be found in the AAPG Student Chapter Bylaws and Operations Manual.
The chapter must:
- be in establishment and officially active for exactly one year from the date of deadline submission to qualify for grant (an official chapter since December 1, 2011);
- have at least nine (9) members who are AAPG student members, with member numbers (dues must be paid for current fiscal year);
- have at least one faculty sponsor who maintains Active member status in AAPG (dues must be paid for current fiscal year);
- have an executive committee for the chapter (President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer)
- hold at least one meeting per month throughout the school year;
- have filed at least two reports with AAPG Headquarters -- one in December and one at the end of the school year
A local Student Chapter committee consisting of not less than three (3) individuals should determine the student recipient to be nominated. Recommended committee participants are:
- Faculty advisor to the Student Chapter
- Sponsoring society liaison
- Student Chapter President (if not a candidate)
- Department chair
- one or more graduate teaching assistants
Student Application Requirements
Accompanying the Student Chapter application will be a one-page description, written by the student applicant, consisting of the following:
- what, if awarded, their award money would be used for- some examples include tuition, books, equipment purchases, field camp expenses and research/geology related travel
- chosen area of geology focus or study
- accomplishments or other notable achievements related to geology focus
- field experiences
- anticipated graduation date for Bachelor's degree
- past and present leadership opportunities
- why geology was chosen as their major
- career objectives
The number of awards given annually will vary depending on the amount of funds available. In 2011, 44 awards were given to students and the same number was given to the Student Chapters. Click here to see current recipient listing.
Award Notification & Payment Regulations
The selection committee consists of members of the AAPG Foundation Trustee Associates, as appointed by the AAPG Foundation.
Chapter and student recipients will be announced in February of each year.
The grants to successful students and chapters are issued in U.S. dollars and the grant is paid separately between the chapter and the student, usually by a check drawn on a U.S. bank. However, in some countries delivery of grants can only be assured by bank wire transfer or other methods. Students selected to receive grants will be contacted by the AAPG Foundation concerning delivery of their grants.
They must confirm that they can safely accept mail delivery of the grant payable by U.S. check, or they must provide all the banking information necessary for wire transfer of the grant, including the appropriate bank account number in the name of the student recipient or AAPG Student Chapter. A grant cannot be sent to a third party or wire transferred to a third party’s account. Students who are unable to accept grants by one of these methods will be ineligible and should not apply. Funds are limited based on annual budget.
If incorrect information has been provided for the grant during submission, i.e. check, wire transfer, or postal mailing address, a deadline date for the appeal on correction is May 1, 2013.
L. Austin Weeks Biography
Mr. Weeks was born on the island of Curacao, March 25, 1925, the only child of Lewis G. and Una Austin Weeks. At age two weeks, he went to Venezuela to live, later to Argentina and Brazil. In 1933, he was sent to the Beacon Prep School in Sussex, England where he lived until 1939 when he went to live in Scarsdale, New York. He graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1942.
Austin graduated from Brown University in an accelerated program that put him through college in two years and eight months with a pre-med degree and an Ensign's commission in the USNR. Following this, he spent three months at Navy Communications School at Harvard University. During the war, his overseas duty took him first to the Mediterranean theatre, followed later by the Japanese occupation. Here he served on General Douglas MacArthur's Army-Navy communications staff in Tokyo (1945-46).
He did some post-graduate study at Brown University, then went to the University of Wisconsin where he earned an M.S. in industrial bacteriology (1947-49). During summers, he worked for Sinclair Wyoming Oil Co. in Casper as a geological assistant and researcher on magnetic properties of granites and arkoses. In 1950, he received his M.A. in geology from Columbia University, his thesis being in structural geology.
From 1950-52, he lived in Salt Lake City, Utah and worked as a field geologist for General Petroleum Corp. He married Marta Sutton in August, 1951 and they moved to Durango, Colorado where Austin was a field geologist for G. P. He became a district geologist in 1953 and until 1957 did field and research work in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Transferred to California in 1957, he did geological research at General Petroleum headquarters until 1960 when the company was reorganized and, along with many others, he was laid off.
Austin spent several years in real estate sales and investment before going back to work as a geological oceanographer for the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., as well as Lamont Geological Observatory. For the former, he was chief scientist for expeditions to the Andaman Islands for the International Indian Ocean Expedition in 1964 and also worked as a biologist for Columbia University studying plankton in the Antarctic in 1963. He consulted for the Israeli government with his father, L. G. Weeks, in 1963 and also was involved in other trips to the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
In 1970-75, he started and was president of Weeks-Tator Consultants in Miami, Florida and in 1970-84 was involved as a vice-president and director of Weeks Petroleum Ltd. a Bermuda Corporation. When this company was raided on the London stock exchange in 1984, he retired. Since that time, he was involved in volunteer photography in the Miami area, producing an annual calendar. He was also involved in funding support for the University of Miami, the University of Wyoming, AAPG Foundation, the Miami Metrozoo and SPE. Austin Weeks passed away at the age of 79 on February 27, 2005.
