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There is money in the WIP budget to cover travel (for women MIT grad students only) to conferences or schools for a few students. This is not to take the place of standard forms of support, but rather is meant to support a student who otherwise would be expected to cover expenses out of her own pocket. WIP conference funding will only be awarded in cases where the student has exhausted all other funding resources (ie, advisor or research group, division support, conference fellowship or travel grant, etc). The WIP conference funding can also be supplementary, in cases where the student can get some but not all funding from another source. The funding can cover conference fees, lodging at the conference, and transportation to the conference. We will not award food or per diem money. The maximum limits are $1,000 for an international conference and $700 for a US or Canadian conference. Reimbursement can only be awarded with a valid receipt. The procedure to apply for funding is:

1. Contact the budget/travel grant committee. It's fine to email us with subject line "Attention Travel Committee". Briefly explain the situation, and the amount of money requested. Include an explanation of why money is not available from other sources (ie, this might be something like: "The CTP's policy is to cover only $500 and the conference I am going to will cost a total of $800. My advisor does not have any money to help cover this, and there isn't any student support from the conference itself".) This must be done well in advance of the proposed travel. As long as two committee members agree, the application will be considered approved.

2. If approved by the WIP committee, it then needs to be approved (in advance) by Gil Cordova. The WIP Travel Committee will forward the application along with their comments to Gil. It is expected that Gil will respond within a few days and will email the student of the decision.

3. Every effort must be made by the student to minimize the cost of the trip (ie, booking travel well in advance to ensure the lowest rate, sharing a hotel room with another female student if possible, etc.)

4. After the conference, the student will submit the travel expense voucher and all original receipts straight to Gil Cordova (room NE25-4015).

5. Travel grant applications will also be considered for non-conference physics travel (ie, to work with a collaborator or to give a talk). In nearly all cases we expect this sort of travel would be covered by the MIT research group or the host institution, but in rare cases with sufficient justification WIP support may be made available. This sort of funding application will require a more detailed explanation of the situation.

6. In all but extreme cases only one travel grant award will be made per year per student, regardless of whether or not the $1,000/$700 cap was reached.