Student and Postdoc Award FAQs

Please verify the details for the specific award. For the Graduate Travel Support and Best Postdoctoral Publication Awards applications, if you submit your application for membership before the October 9 award application deadline, membership status will be classified as “pending” and you will be considered eligible. Even better, apply before the regular September 1 membership application deadline! For other awards, such as the Supplementary Training for Education Program, applicants must be members at the deadline.

For the awards that allow your membership status to be pending, you must have submitted your completed portion of the membership application by that date. If a sponsor letter isn't in, that will not disqualify you. Follow up with your sponsor so your application is quickly completed. You must be a member by the time you receive the award.

A student can apply for multiple national SOT, Regional Chapter, Special Interest Group, and Specialty Section awards as long as eligibility requirements for the individual awards or funding are met.

No, with a few exceptions. The sponsoring group—SOT national, Regional Chapter, Special Interest Group, or Specialty Section—determines eligibility and whether a student may accept another award or funds. In order to provide funding to as many students as possible, SOT national will only provide one type of meeting-related travel support or award funds to a student in any one year.

SOT national meeting-related travel funding includes the following:

• Graduate Student Travel Support
• Travel funding for Graduate Student Leadership Committee (GSLC) Chair and Subcommittee Chairs, and RC, SIG, and SS Graduate Student Representatives
• Perry J. Gehring Student Diversity Award
• Pfizer SOT Undergraduate Travel Award
• Undergraduate Diversity Program Student Travel Award

Please note that Colgate-Palmolive Award for Student Research Training in Alternative Methods does not provide travel funds for the meeting, so a student may receive this funding and one of the awards listed above from SOT in the same year.

Yes, almost all SOT awards are open to applicants from any country and SOT encourages eligible applicants to apply no matter where they live. If there is eligibility specific to nationality, that will be stated in the program description.

No, an unofficial copy is OK.

Yes, if a) you are a student in a doctoral program, b) your abstract for the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo was submitted through the traditional application process and is accepted, c) you are an SOT member (or pending member), and d) you have not received a Graduate Student Travel Support before.

The student recipient will receive a check for travel expenses. The student is responsible for making his or her own registration, lodging, and travel arrangements. SOT treats this as a travel reimbursement rather than as a stipend.

The amount varies from year to year depending on the number of qualified applicants and the total funds available. In recent years the amount of travel support has been between $875–$1,000.

Yes, you are.

Regional Chapter, Special Interest Group, or Specialty Section Awards from a current or previous year do not affect eligibility for the SOT Graduate Student Travel Support.

That depends. If the award is from SOT national, then you MAY NOT accept both the award funds and the GSLC travel funding. SOT policy dictates that you may receive funds from only one source through SOT national—you may decide which award/funding to accept. However, you MAY accept funds from as many Regional Chapter, Special Interest Group, or Specialty Section awards as you are eligible and selected to receive, according to their policies.

Some Regional Chapters, Special Interest Groups, and Specialty Sections provide travel awards for postdocs. Filter the awards listing by audience and select "Postdoctoral" to see all the awards for which postdoctoral scholars are eligible.

The recipient of the Colgate-Palmolive Postdoctoral Fellowship in In Vitro Toxicology and Syngenta Fellowship Award in Human Health Applications of New Technologies may budget award funds to present the funded research at an SOT meeting.

Postdoctoral Representatives for Regional Chapters, Special Interest Groups, and Specialty Sections are eligible to request a registration waiver for the SOT Annual Meeting; information about the process is provided by the Postdoctoral Assembly. SOT does not provide travel support for PDA Representatives.

SOT, Regional Chapters, Special Interest Groups, and Specialty Sections have numerous awards for which undergraduate students are eligible. These may be discovered by viewing the awards listing by audience and selecting “Undergraduate.”

SOT awards specifically for undergraduates include the Undergraduate Diversity Program Student Travel Award and the SOT Undergraduate Research Award.