Gretna Weste Plant Pathology & Mycology Scholarship 2025

The University of Melbourne Botany Foundation (established in 1994) supports excellence in education and research in the discipline of botany. The Foundation provides a number of student scholarships, awards and prizes annually to support students and researchers in Botany.

Dr Gretna Weste was a botanist who worked in the former School of Botany from 1961 to 1982. She was the foremost authority in Australia on the biological behaviour of the cinnamon fungus, Phytophthora cinnamoni, which travels in disturbed soil and was responsible for ‘dieback’ disease in forests of Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.

This scholarship is awarded to support the research of an Honours or postgraduate student in botany, in the School of BioSciences, working in the area of plant pathology and/or mycology.

For clarity, students in the following degrees are eligible:

• Bachelor of Science (Honours)
• Master of Science (BioSciences)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Science)
• Master of Philosophy (Science)

Students must be undertaking research in Botany in the School of BioSciences, and specialise in plant pathology and/or mycology.

All scholarship outcomes will be sent via SmartyGrants.

Please see outcome timing below:

• Round 1 (Jan-March applications): May-July
• Round 2 (June-August applications): September-October

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