2012 ESA-SS Awards
All awards presented by the Student Section will be granted only to Student Section members (except the EcoVision Photo Competition). To become a student section member, check the appropriate box (it is only $5!) on your ESA membership when registering and/or renewing (http://eservices.esa.org) or email membership@esa.org. You can also contact ESA Student Section Membership Representative Sandra Dooley dooleys(at)uci.edu to help you find out your status.
The awards will be announced and presented during the ESA Student Section award ceremony at the 97th Annual Conference of the Ecological Society of America in Portland, OR from August 5-10th, 2012. Details about date and location of this specific event will be posted mid-summer. The national and international travel awards will be announced around June 15, 2012.
Thanks,
The Student Section Board.
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The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in partnership with the Student Section of the Ecological Society of America (ESA-SS) will honor young scientists for their contributions to the discipline of ecology that have extended beyond the realm of academia and into the broader communities of which they are a part.
AWARD: The award will consist of a cash prize of at least $300.
ELIGIBILITY AND NOMINATION:
- Applicant must be a member of the ESA-SS and it is strongly recommended that they
become members of UCS. - Applicant must be in good academic standing.
- Applicant must commit to attend the ESA 97th annual conference and the ESA-SS award ceremony, where awards will be announced. Travel funds of up to $300 to attend the conference are available based on need.
- Applicant must be enrolled as a student (high school through post-graduate).
- Applications from students typically underrepresented in the sciences are especially
encouraged to apply.
SELECTION CRITERIA: A panel that includes the Boards of both the ESA-SS and UCS will evaluate each applicant’s contributions to outreach, ecoservice and environmental justice. The goal of this award is to engage young ecologists in research that reaches beyond inquiry and into application, outreach, and education. The theme of the 97th ESA Annual Meeting is: “Life on Earth: Preserving, Sustaining, and Utilizing Our Ecosystems.” Applications that show a strong background in this regard will be highly valued. For more information on what ecoservice is, please read this article: Salguero-Gómez R, Whiteside M, Talbot J & Laurance W. 2009. After Eco comes Service. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 7, 277-278.
The application package consists of the following 4 parts:
- Application form (available for download here)
- Current CV
- Letter of recommendation
- Unofficial transcript
All materials must be submitted to Jorge Ramos (jramos10(at)asu.edu) by 5 pm EST, May 1, 2012. The applicant must submit the application package in a single email with the subject “UCS–ESA-SS Ecoservice Award”. However, the recommendation may be submitted directly by the advisor in an email with the subject “UCS–ESA-SS Ecoservice Award –RECOMMENDER’S LAST NAME”.
Failure to comply with the rules will result in the automatic disqualification of the applicant.
UCS and ESA-SS are equal opportunity organizations.
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The ESA Student Section is pleased to sponsor the third Academic Excellence Award for Young Women in Ecology. We will award one female student a prize for academic excellence demonstrated by an outstanding research publication and a commitment to increase the visibility of other women scientists.
AWARD: Winner will receive a cash award of $100.
ELIGIBILITY AND NOMINATION: At the time of the nomination deadline (May 1, 2012), the nominee must have published a first authored paper in a peer-reviewed journal (May 2010-May 2012) and have implemented outreach activities to promote women in science. Accepted manuscripts in press are eligible but those in review are not. The nominee must be an undergraduate student, a graduate student, or have received a Ph.D. within the past two years. In addition, the nominee must be a member in good standing of ESA's Student Section at the time of nomination. Self-nominations and nominations by colleagues are welcome.
SELECTION CRITERIA: Applications will be reviewed by an Awards Committee appointed
by the officers of the Student Section. The award package will be judged based upon (1) the paper’s contribution to the field, including originality, study design, and impact and (2) the nominee’s outreach efforts to promote participation of young women in science.
The awards will be made public during the ESA Student Section award ceremony to be held at the annual meeting conference. Applicants are required to attend this event.
Nomination packets should include:
- A PDF copy of the published paper in the original format of the journal in which it was published. If in press, the edited proof pdf is valid.
- A brief letter (pdf format) containing:
- A description of the impact the paper has on the field and the date of completion of the degree if the nominee is no longer a student. ***Make sure to indicate whether the research was completed during undergraduate or graduate tenure***(200 words max)
- A statement describing how the nominee engages in outreach to other women scientists; personally, educationally and/or professionally (200 words max)
- A final sentence in this letter stating: “I hereby commit to attend the 97th ESA annual meeting to be held in Portland, OR August 5-10, 2012, and to be present during the ESA Student Section Award Ceremony”. Please sign or write your initials at the end of this letter.
- A letter of support from the major professor that also confirms the nominee’s eligibility for the award. The letter is to be submitted in pdf format and directly emailed by the recommender (not by the applicant).
- A CV from the nominee in pdf format.
Nomination packets should be sent (by May 1, 2012) electronically as pdfs to the Student Section's Women and Minorities Officer, Casee Lemons (Casee_Lemons(at)baylor.edu), with the phrase, "Academic Excellence Award for Young Women in Ecology " in the subject line.
Failure to adhere to any of the rules described above will result in automatic withdrawal of the entire application for this award.
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The ESA Student Section will support the attendance of national and international students at the 2012 ESA Annual Conference via travel awards.
AWARD: We expect to give out several awards of around $300 for attendance of students within the US and several awards of $500 for students affiliated with institutions outside the US. The final amounts awarded to each individual will depend on the distance from the candidate’s institution to the ESA annual meeting city (Portland, OR, USA).
ELIGIBILITY AND NOMINATION: The applicant may be of any nationality and background, and must be up-to-date with the ESA Student Section dues.
SELECTION CRITERIA: These awards are competitive, and we encourage submissions from students (undergraduates, Masters and Ph.D.) in excellent academic standing who otherwise will not be able to attend the conference. We do not encourage the submission of applications by candidates who can find funding through other sources.
The student must submit this application form and his/her abstract acceptance confirmation to Jorge Ramos (jramos10(at)asu.edu) with “ESA-SS travel award” in the email subject by May 1, 2012. We will, however, hold off on deciding on awardees until a couple of weeks after the May 10th notification deadline for those that submitted late-breaking abstracts. If you have submitted a late-breaking abstract and are waiting to hear about its acceptance, note this on your application and we will take it into consideration.
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AWARD: The Student Section of the Ecological Society of America will award two cash prizes ($75 each) to the best undergraduate student oral presentation and best undergraduate student poster presentation during the 2012 ESA Annual Meeting in Portland, OR. Best undergraduate student oral and poster presentations will be awarded based on the same criteria as the Buell and Braun awards (see here for additional details). Awards for the 2012 recipients will be presented at the Student Section Award Ceremony at the 2012 Annual Meeting. Judging for the 2012 competition will occur during the 97th Annual Meeting, awards announced shortly after the conference, and awards presented at the Student Section Award Ceremony at the 2013 Annual Meeting. For questions regarding the award, please contact Jorge Ramos (jramos10(at)asu.edu), ESA Student Section Chair.
ELIGIBILITY AND NOMINATION: All applicants must be members of the ESA Student Section in the 2011-2012 year.
SELECTION CRITERIA: Fill out this form and attach the abstract of the talk/poster at the bottom of the application. The deadline is May 1, 2012. Please submit your application to Russell Auwae (auwaerd(at)muohio.edu) with “ESA-SS BUPAwards” as the subject line. Please notice that the subject line must be exactly the one described above or your application may not be identified as such.
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AWARD: We will award two cash prizes ($100) for excellence in research via an outstanding publication. There are awards for both UNDERGRADUATE and GRADUATE research.
ELIGIBILITY AND NOMINATION: At the time of the nomination deadline (May 1, 2012), the paper must be published in a peer-reviewed journal (May 2011-May 2012) and the nominee must be an undergraduate student, a graduate student, or have received a Ph.D. within the past two years. The nominee must be first author of the paper and be a member in good standing of ESA's Student Section at the time of nomination. Self-nominations and nominations by colleagues are welcomed.
SELECTION CRITERIA: Applications will be reviewed by an Awards Committee appointed
by the officers of the Student Section. Papers will be judged based upon the research paper’s contribution to the field, originality, study design, and impact.
Nomination packets should include:
- A copy of the paper
- A brief letter describing the impact of the paper on the field and the date of completion of the degree if the nominee is no longer a student. ***Make sure to indicate whether the research was completed during undergraduate or graduate tenure***
- A letter of support from the major professor that confirms the nominee’s eligibility for the award
- A CV from the nominee
Nomination packets should be sent (by May 1, 2012) electronically as pdfs to the Student Section's Vice President, Joey Bernhardt (joey.bernhardt(at)biodiversity.ubc.ca), with the phrase "ESA Outstanding Student Research Award" in the subject line.
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The ESA Eco-Vision Competition celebrates and awards outstanding visual arts contributions made by ESA members to ecological science through still photography and multimedia creations. Photography’s visual and interdisciplinary nature can aid scientific research and outreach. In previous years we have had photo and video competitions, but due to low funding this year, we will only accept photography materials.
AWARD: Winning Eco-Vision outstanding photograph creations will receive a cash prize and be featured on ESA’s website. The photographs will be exhibited during ESA’s Annual Meeting in August in Portland, OR.
ELIGIBILITY AND NOMINATION: All ESA members are invited to submit entries to the 2012 ESA Eco-Vision Competition and entries must address the ESA 2012 Annual Meeting theme, “Life on Earth: Preserving, Utilizing, and Sustaining our Ecosystems”. Only one submission per applicant is allowed.
SELECTION CRITERIA: Entries will be judged on their value and their link to the theme of the annual meeting of “Life on Earth: Preserving, Utilizing, and Sustaining our Ecosystems”, value for ecological education, value for ecological communication, technical quality, aesthetic quality, and creativity. The judging panel for the 2012 Eco-Vision Competition includes a combination of ESA scientists and educators.
Please submit your photographs to Caitlin Bailey (cbailey2290(at)gmail.com) Heads-up: Submission deadline will be July 1, 2012. Questions? Contact Caitlin Bailey.