Aquatic Ecology Award
The Aquatic Ecology Section offers four awards:
1. Thomas M. Frost Award for Excellence in Graduate Research
2. Exceptional Promise in Graduate Research Award
3. Best Student Talk in Aquatic Ecology Award
4. Student Travel Awards
Best Paper Awards (Frost & Exceptional Promise Awards):
Thomas M. Frost Award for Excellence in Graduate Research
The Aquatic Section of the Ecological Society of America is pleased to sponsor the Thomas M. Frost Award for Excellence in Graduate Research. Thomas M. Frost was the director of the University of Wisconsin Trout Lake Station from 1981 until his death in 2000. His colleagues will remember him as a dedicated and creative scientist who brought a gentle, caring humanity to our endeavors. This prize, founded in 2001, honors his commitment to aquatic ecology and to graduate student education. Graduate students and recent Ph.D. recipients (within two years of receiving the Ph.D.) are both eligible for the Frost Award. The recipient will receive a plaque and a $500 cash prize.
Exceptional Promise in Graduate Research Award
Only current graduate students are eligible for the Exceptional Promise in Graduate Research Award. The recipient will receive a cash prize of $250. This award has been established through a generous gift in honor of limnologist Stuart Neff.
Eligibility and nomination for both Student Research Awards: These awards will be given to scientists in recognition of an outstanding paper resulting from research done as a graduate student. The nominee must be first author of the paper if there is more than one author. Nominated papers must be published in a peer-reviewed journal and be in the area of aquatic ecology. The nominee also must be a member in good standing of the ESA Aquatic Section at the time of nomination. Self-nominations and nominations by colleagues are welcomed. Applications will be reviewed by the Awards Committee appointed by the Officers of the Aquatic Section. Candidates will be judged based upon the paper’s contribution to the field, including its originality, study design, and impact. At the time of the nomination deadline, the paper must be published and the nominee must be a graduate student or have received the Ph.D. within two years (see additional criteria above).
Nomination packets should include:
1. A copy of the paper
2. A brief letter describing the impact of the paper on the field and stating the date of completion of the degree if the nominee is no longer a student
3. A letter of support from the major professor that also confirms eligibility of the nominee for the award
4. A CV from the nominee
DEADLINE: June 1, 2015
Applications should be submitted electronically as pdfs. Send files to the Aquatic Section’s Secretary (sjones20 at nd dot edu), with the subject line “Frost Award_ApplicantLastName” OR “ExceptionalAward_ApplicantLastName”.
Past Frost Award Recipients
2014 – Ashkaan Fahimipour, University of Florida
“The dynamics of assembling food webs” Ecology Letters 17: 606-613
2013 – David Civitello, Indiana University
“Parasite consumption and host interference can inhibit disease spread in dense populations” Ecology Letters 16: 626-634
2012 – Travis Ingram, Harvard University
“Intraguild predation drives evolutionary niche shift in threespine stickleback”
Evolution 66: 1819-1832
2011 – James M. Hood, University of Minnesota
“Diet Mixing: Do Animals Integrate Growth or Resources across Temporal Heterogeneity?” American Naturalist 176:651-663
2010 – Evan H. Campbell Grant, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
“Use of multiple dispersal pathways facilitates amphibian persistence in stream networks.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107:6936-6940.
2009 – Jennifer Howeth, University of Texas
“Planktonic dispersal dampens temporal trophic cascades in pond metacommunities.” Ecology Letters 11: 245-257.
2008 – Alison Derry, Queens University
“Adaptive reversals in acid tolerance in copepods from lakes recovering from historical stress.” Ecological Applications 17: 1116-1126.
2007 – Peter McIntyre, Cornell University
“Fish extinctions alter nutrient recycling in tropical freshwaters.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104(11): 4461-4466
2006 – Wendy Palen
“Impact of UV-B exposure on amphibian embryos: linking species physiology and oviposition behavior” Proceedings of the Royal Society (B) 272:1227-1234
2005 – James Vonesh
“Complex life cycles and density dependence: assessing the contribution of egg mortality to amphibian declines.” Oecologia 133:325-333
2004 – Thomas Okey
“Macrobenthic colonist guilds and renegades in Monterey Canyon drift algae: partitioning multidimensions.” Ecological Monographs 73:415-440
2003 – Cynthia Kolar
“Ecological predictions and risk assessment for alien fishes in North America.”
Science 298:1233-1236
2002 – Jonathan Shurin
“Dispersal limitation, invasion resistance, and the structure of pond zooplankton communities. ” Ecology 81:3074-3086.
Past Exceptional Promise in Graduate Research Award Recipients
2014 – John Crawford, University of Wisconsin
“Ebullitive methane emissions from oxygenated wetland streams” Global Change Biology 20: 3408-3422.
2013 – Meryl Mims, University of Washington
“Life history theory predicts fish assemblage response to hydrologic regimes” Ecology 93: 35-45.
Best Student Talk in Aquatic Ecology
The Aquatic Ecology Section also gives an award for the best talk in aquatic ecology presented at the annual ESA meeting by a student in the Aquatic Section. The student must apply for the Section’s award by sending an email with the subject line “Best Student Talk” to the section Secretary, Stuart Jones (sjones20 at nd dot edu) stating that 1) they are a member of the section, and 2) that they are eligible for the Buell Award. (Note: the student need not have applied for the Buell Award – we will be carrying out the judging separately.) The student also should include or attach a copy of his or her presentation abstract. Applications for the Best Student Talk Award are due June 1, 2015. The recipient will receive a $300 award from the Section.
JUDGES NEEDED!!! We also are seeking volunteers to help judge the Best Student Talk Award. Judges will evaluate oral presentations at the 2015 meeting. Please volunteer to serve as a judge (even if you can only judge one talk!) by July 1st by emailing our section secretary, Stuart Jones (sjones20 at nd dot edu).
Past Best Student Talk Award Recipients
2014 – Lauren McCarthy (East Carolina University)
“How do differences in species hatching phenology and the presence of predators affect population and ecosystem level properties of aquatic food webs?”
2012 – Kate Boersma (Oregon State University)
“Top predator extinctions in drying streams modify community structure and ecosystem functioning”
2009 – Kristine Grayson (University of Virginia)
“Migrating versus residency in a pond-breeding amphibian: Sex-based trade-offs and environmental influences”
2006 – Meghan Duffy
“Is the enemy of my enemy really my friend? The combined effects of selective predators and virulent parasites on Daphnia populations?
2004 – Wendy Palen
?UV impacts on alpine amphibians: Linking UV tolerance with field exposure?
2003 – Patrick Crumrine
“Examining the role of size structure on intraguild predation in larval odonates”
2002 – Heather Vance-Chalcraft
“Evaluating the prevalence of non-additivity for multiple predator species in aquatic systems”
2001 – Mark Scheuerell
“Effect of incident light on the diel vertical migration of juvenile sockeye salmon in Alaska lakes”
Student Travel Awards
The Aquatic Ecology Section gives a limited number of travel awards to students to offset expenses associated with attending the ESA Annual meeting. The student must be presenting a talk or poster, and must be a member of the Aquatic Ecology section. Travel awards are $300 and will be awarded on a lottery basis. To apply, please provide confirmation of abstract acceptance in an email with the subject line “Travel Award_ApplicantLastName” sent to the Section Secretary, Stuart Jones, sjones20 at nd dot edu no later than June 1, 2015. Requests should be sent in a separate email from other correspondence.