Graduate students receive support from a number of sources, including Teaching Assistantships (funded by the campus), Research Assistantships (or "GSRs," funded by individual faculty members), Work-Study, and fellowships. Many of these forms of funding come with work requirements (teaching, working in a lab, etc.), but fellowships typically have no such requirements.

New applicants are strongly urged to apply for campuswide fellowships. These are highly competitive, but we often have one or two incoming students who win such support. A few of these, such as the Dissertation Year Fellowship, are available for continuing students as well. More information about campus internal fellowships and external fellowships are available from Graduate Studies. Note that diversity includes women in physics, students who are the first in their families to attend graduate school, and other categories besides racial minorities. Also, the typical entering graduate student can make a fair case for financial need: he or she often has zero outside income, zero savings, and possibly student loans from college!

Students are encouraged to apply for national fellowships, including NSF fellowships, NASA fellowships, Department of Energy, Computational Science Fellowships, and others. Davis graduate students who do research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory can apply for support from the Lawrence Scholar Program. 

Graduate Student Travel Awards

Ryan Couch Memorial Fund

The Ryan Couch Memorial Fund was established in memory of physics graduate student Ryan Edward Couch who passed away in November 1995. This award is intended to provide support for physics graduate students to present papers in their field at a major conference. A Call is issued to Physics graduate students annually in the fall or winter quarter.

Katherine Fadley Pusateri Memorial Fund in Physics

The Katherine Fadley Pusateri Memorial fund is intended to provide travel funding for physics graduate students to present papers in their field at a major conference. Priority will be given to students studying condensed matter and surface physics, and materials science. If relevant in a given year, preference will be given to students who obtained either a high school or undergraduate degree in the State of Ohio, the lifelong home of Ms. Pusateri.

A Call will be issued to Physics graduate students every other year in fall or winter quarter.

Criteria for both awards shall include:

• The excellence and impact of the work to be reported
• Prior opportunities to present papers (preference may be given to students presenting their first paper)
• Financial need

Selection of award recipients shall be made by the Department’s Graduate Curriculum Committee.

Application packages should consist of the following:

• Application form
• Endorsement of faculty advisor
• Curriculum vitae, which includes past presentations
• Abstract of paper
• Manuscript, if applicable