The endowment supporting this award was established in 2008 by the late Prof. John S. Edwards, known as a Renaissance Man. He was a great naturalist and adventurer, known around the world as one of the pioneers of insect developmental neurobiology and a leading scholar in their ecology and evolution. He was also deeply knowledgeable about early American landscape painting, early European music, and was a skilled mountaineer. This award provides support for costs of graduate research.