Smith Fellowship

The David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship Program seeks to develop future world leaders and entrepreneurs who are successful at linking conservation science and application. Smith Fellowships provide two years of postdoctoral support to outstanding early-career scientists.

This post-doctoral fellowship program identifies and supports early-career scientists who will shape the field of applied conservation biology. David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowships are available to post-doctoral researchers (of any nationality) affiliated with a United States institution, proposing research that addresses pressing conservation issues for the United States.

Conservation biology as a discipline experienced dramatic growth over the past two decades and a growing body of academic research focuses on conservation applications. Nonetheless, post-doctoral opportunities for conservation biology graduates have been very limited.

In 1998, to help address this need, the foundation for David H. Smith (The Cedar Tree Foundation) and founding partner The Nature Conservancy established the David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship Program, devoted exclusively to applied conservation research problems. By fostering the development of promising conservation scientists, the Smith Fellowship Program helps encourage this rapidly expanding field of scientific inquiry and link it to the practice of conservation.

In 2005, the Program moved to the Society for Conservation Biology. The Society for Conservation Biology’s relationships with leaders from a diverse constituency of conservation organizations world-wide will offer Smith Fellows a broad range of research, application, and policy experiences. Fellowship Benefits

• Two year annual salary of $50,000, research funds of $32,000 and an $8,000 travel budget.
  
• Targeted professional development workshops and training events.
  
• Lifetime membership in the Society for Conservation Biology including subscriptions to Conservation Biology, Conservation Letters, and Conservation magazine