First-author Publications but co-advisors are presenting work.

[TakeruK]

I think that does sound a little suspicious to me (especially since all of the other students are not being asked to remove their name).

 

In general though, it is not the norm in my field (and perhaps in all of STEM) for a student to be the primary person on these big research grants. I recently applied for a NASA fellowship for graduate research and although it is only me that is being evaluated (my supervisor provides a LOR for the judges) and the writing must be all mine, the PI on the grant is still my supervisor's. I know my school also does not allow graduate students to be in charge of an entire grant (although I will be the one to decide how to spend the $3000 student allowance). But technically, the grant is administered by the school and my PI, not me. However, this is standard practice for this fellowship (it says so in the instructions) and everyone is doing the same thing (and every student must be on the grant of course).

 

So, having your advisor be the primary on the grant is not weird at all. And going through your school's grant office / office of sponsored research is normal (I had to walk my application all over campus to get various signatures). But your advisor asking you to remove yourself from the grant is weird. I would recommend you have a talk and say that you are not comfortable with this and that you do not think it's necessary to remove your name and that you want to have your name on your work.

[Calorific]

Yes, @TakeruK. I had something like an epiphany as I was grieving about it this evening and I thought I might as well express how I feel to him in an email.

So I wrote along the lines:

 

Hi Dr. Xyz,

 

I feel I invested a lot of effort into the grant application process and it seems to me to be quite unfair that I will not have my name on the application you intend to submit.

I checked with other students who are submitting and the understanding I got was that their advisors had no problem with their names on the submission. I am trusting you have the best intentions and I am not questioning your intent and objectivity at this point.

I worked so hard on the application since I felt winning it would be a great accomplishment for me. I felt this would be a plus for me in the future, not to mention I feel very hurt and saddened by the recent development.

I hope you do not take this too personal but I could not hide my feelings anymore.

 

Long story short, he mailed back within the hour saying he called the other Professor who's doing similar research and he confirmed to him his student's name is on the grant. He has revisited the proposal and added my name. 

I feel better now.