Search

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Hero image
Department of Entomology

Williston Diptera Research Fund

The S.W. Williston Diptera Research Fund is a Smithsonian Institution-administered endowment fund established for the increase and diffusion of knowledge about Diptera.

The endowment was initiated in the 1970s by the late F. Chris Thompson (1944–2021) and has grown to its current size primarily through his contributions.

About US$6,000 are available from the endowment annually. To this day, the fund has supported the travel of graduate students and dipterists to the International Congresses of Dipterology, to our museum for collections-based research, and to participate in Fly School. The fund has also supported field-work for taxonomic or systematic research.

Samuel Wendell Williston (1852–1918) was a distinguished biologist who made significant contributions to paleontology, entomology, medicine, and education. He was the first native dipterist in the U. S., the first to produce generic monographs of Nearctic Diptera, the first to curate and study the Diptera of the USNM, and the first to make a contribution to that collection (his types of Nearctic Syrphidae).

The application deadline is usually 1 December of each year. However, there will be no competition for funds in December 2023 in order to develop an efficient and sustainable payment system to award funds to applicants in the future.

The next application deadline will be 1 December 2024. Contact Torsten Dikow (DikowT@si.edu) for more info.

The Williston Fund is administered by a committee of at least three members, two of whom (the majority) must be systematists actively working on Diptera, and one who must be a scientist affiliated with, but not necessarily employed by, the Smithsonian Institution (for example, a dipterist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL)).

The current committee consists of Allen Norrbom (SEL), Jung-Wook Kim (NIS), and Torsten Dikow (SI).

Please consider donating to this endowment fund to support the increase and diffusion of knowledge about Diptera and particularly the research and travel of the next generation of dipterists. Contact Torsten Dikow (DikowT@si.edu) for more info.