Applications for the 2025 award cycle accepted in early 2024
The Marion Milligan Mason Awards, funded by the Marion Milligan Mason fund, are designed to support Women in the Chemical Sciences to kickstart the research career of promising future senior investigators in the chemical sciences. The Marion Milligan Mason Fund provides four grants of $55,000 every other year to women researchers engaged in basic research in the chemical sciences. Awards are for women who are starting their academic research careers. In addition to research funding, the program provides leadership development and mentoring opportunities.
Background & History
This award is funded by a bequest from the Marion Milligan Mason Fund. As a chemist and AAAS member since 1965, the late Marion Tuttle Milligan Mason wanted to support the advancement of women in the chemical sciences. Dr. Milligan also wanted to honor her family's commitment to higher education for women, as demonstrated by her parents and grandfather, who encouraged and sent several daughters to college.
In accordance with her will, a $2.2 million bequest from Mason's estate will support research by early-career professional women in the chemical sciences over 20 years. This fund was created to honor of the memory of all the men and women of the Tuttle and Milligan families who believed in higher education for women and encouraged them in their pursuit of professional and business careers, in particular:
• Charles H. Milligan, my father, (1886-1970), Ph.D. 1919, University of Chicago;
• Ruth Tuttle Milligan, my mother, (1891-1977), B.A. 1913, Vassar, M.A. 5 1915, University of Pennsylvania;
• Martin Adsit Tuttle, my grandfather, (1841-1932), who sent six daughters to college, the eldest (Alma Tuttle Milne) of whom graduated from Vassar in 1896 and was inducted into Phi Beta·Kappa in 1898 when the chapter was founded.
In July 2012, Mason passed away in Bridgewater, New Jersey. She is survived by her brother, Dr. Barton Milligan, an AAAS Fellow, and his wife Carolyn in Asheville, NC and Freeport, The Bahamas, as well as her nephew, Charles H. Milligan of Wingdale, NY.
Learn more about the award background.