Stephen Jay Gould Prize | Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize | R. A. Fisher Prize | W. D. Hamilton Award | Rosemary Grant Awards for Graduate Student Research

The Stephen Jay Gould Prize

Dr. Kenneth R. Miller

The Stephen Jay Gould Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained and exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance in biology, education, and everyday life in the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould.

The winner of the 2011 Stephen Jay Gould Prize is Kenneth R. Miller, a Professor of Biology at Brown University.  Through his writings, teaching and appearances in court, Dr. Miller has proved an eloquent and passionate defender of evolution and the scientific method.  Dr. Miller received his PhD in Biology from the University of Colorado and taught from 1974 to 1980 at Harvard University.  While at Harvard he frequently interacted with and was inspired by Stephen Jay Gould.  He first became aware of antievolutionism as a beginning professor at Brown University.  His passion and skill at rebutting the claims of creationists eventually led him to serve as a key witness in several important and high-profile evolution-creationist court cases, including the well-known Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case in 2005, the decision for which effectively forestalled further attempts to mandate the teaching of intelligent design in high school science curricula.  Dr. Miller is also well known for his widely used high-school biology textbook, Biology, co-authored with Joseph Levine.  With its strong unifying theme of evolution, this book was at the heart of court cases in 2004 and 2005 and has been defended from creationist inroads through Miller’s several debates with school board members and other decision-makers, helping to educate them as to the importance of the inclusion of evolution in their standards and curricula.  He has written insightfully about the relationships between science and religion in his 1999 book Finding Darwin’s God, and his most recent book Only a Theory - Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul (2008) was named to Amazon's list of Best Science Books of 2008 and was a finalist for the National Academy of Sciences' Communication Award in 2009.

Dr. Miller is well-recognized as an engaging and effective communicator for both scientific and lay audiences, and has made frequent radio and television appearances.  He is a master of the public presentation of science, and conveys scientific content in a style that effectively engages audiences with a broad range of backgrounds.  As such, the broad reach of his public presentations and writings on evolution makes him an excellent choice for this year’s Stephen Jay Gould Award.

The Stephen Jay Gould Prize Committee:
Scott Edwards, Chair
Sam Scheiner
Maria Servidio
John Willis

Past Stephen J. Gould Prize winners:
2009 Dr. Eugenie C. Scott
2010 Dr. Sean B. Carroll

Nomination/Application for the 2012 Stephen J. Gould Prize

The Society for the Study of Evolution’s Committee for the Stephen J. Gould Prize for the Improvement for the Understanding of Evolution is soliciting nominations for the Award for 2012. With this annual award the Society for the Study of Evolution recognizes, promotes, and rewards individuals who have increased public understanding of evolutionary biology and its place in modern science. The award will include a cash prize of $5,000 and the expectation that the recipient will present the Public Outreach Seminar at the Evolution Meeting (expenses for travel/lodging and registration would be covered by the SSE). The awardee should be a leader in evolutionary thought and in public outreach who can deliver an inspiring lecture for both professionals and the broader public at the 2012 meetings of the Society in Ottawa, Ontario.

Nominations should include the CV of the nominee along with a 1-2 page letter describing why this individual is worthy of the award.

Please send nominations via e-mail to the Chair of the Committee, Samuel M. Scheiner, at sscheine@nsf.gov. Please submit nominees by December 18. All nominations will be treated confidentially and will be evaluated by members of the Committee and the Council for the Society. An awardee will be announced in early February.

The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize                                          

The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding young evolutionary biologist.   The prize was established in memory of Professor Dobzhansky by his friends and colleagues, and reflects his lifelong commitment to fostering the research careers of young scientists.

Dr. Joel McGlothlin 2011 Prize Winner

The winner of the 2011 award is Joel McGlothlin, who received his PhD from the Indiana University in 2007 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia. Dr. McGlothlin uses a wide range of approaches to study phenotypic integration: the mechanisms by which morphology, physiology, and behavior interact to produce well-adapted phenotypes.  At the mechanistic level, his experiments with juncos demonstrate that varying testosterone levels produce coordinated morphological and behavioral traits. Using evolutionary genetic approaches, McGlothlin has provided evidence that phenotypic integration can be produced by correlational selection on combinations of traits.  In his theoretical work, McGlothlin has developed a framework for understanding how social interactions among individuals generate integration and drive social evolution. In his current position, McGlothlin is investigating the molecular basis of adaptation, documenting parallel evolution of toxin-resistance genes in garter snakes.  He is also working at the macroevolutionary level, exploring G matrix evolution inAnolis lizards, and finding that genetic correlations converge in response to similar selection pressures. McGlothlin’s mentors praise his intellectual breadth, his ability to drive collaborations to new levels, and his creative promise in the field of evolutionary biology.

Past Dobzhansky Prize winners:
1981 Douglas R. Cavener
1982 Elizabeth Anne Zimmer
1983 Anthony J. Zera
1984 Robb F. Leary
1985 Joshua J. Schwartz
1987 Ary A. Hoffman
1988 Steven A. Frank
1989 Bernard J. Crespi
1990 Erik Greene
1991 Jonathan Losos
1992 Barry Sinervo
1993 H. Allen Orr
1994 David Haig
1995 David Begun
1996 Rufus A. Johnstone
1997 Massimo Pigliucci
1998 Christian Peter Klingenberg
1999 Jason B. Wolf
2000 Thomas Lenormand
2001 Alexander Badyaev
2002 Howard Rundle
2003 Daven Presgraves
2004 Aneil Agrawal
2005 Daniel Bolnick
2006 Russel Bonduriansky
2007 Franziska Michor
2008 Patrik Nosil
2009 Judith Mank
2010 Fyodor Kondrashov

Nomination/Application for the 2012 Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize

The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding young evolutionary biologist.  The prize was established in memory of Professor Dobzhansky by his friends and colleagues, and reflects his lifelong commitment to fostering the research careers of young scientists.

            Eligibility – The candidate must have a Ph.D. (or equivalent) awarded no earlier than May 2008 and no later than 1st February 2012, and must be actively involved in research in the field of evolutionary biology.  There are no other restrictions.  Applicants do not have to be members of the Society for the Study of Evolution, but such membership is encouraged.

            Nomination/Application - Candidates may apply directly or may be nominated.  Established researchers are encouraged to nominate outstanding young scientists who may be unaware of the existence and prestige of this prize.  Each candidacy must be supported by the following materials detailing the candidate's career to date: (1) a curriculum vitae, (2) a summary of research accomplishments, (3) a 3-5 page statement of research plans for the next 5 years (note length limitation), (4) pdf copies of three recent publications, (5) names and addresses of the three referees (including the nominating scientist where applicable) who have sent supporting letters.  N.B.: The three letters of reference are sent separately, but no application will be considered without these letters.  

            The application/nomination materials must be sent as PDF e-mail attachments, preferably united in a single file.  The deadline for receipt of all materials, including letters of reference, is 15 February 2012.  All materials should be sent to the SSE Secretary (John Kelly) at jkk@ku.edu.

The R.A. Fisher Prize                                                                                 

The R. A. Fisher Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution for an outstanding Ph.D. dissertation paper published in the journal Evolution during a given calendar year.

This prize pays tribute to one of the most distinguished evolutionists of the 20th Century, Sir Ronald Fisher, who with JBS Haldane and Sewall Wright, developed theoretical population genetics and established its central position within evolutionary biology.  Fisher’s interests ranged widely, but placed particular emphasis on the dynamics of mutation and selection and how these contribute to adaptation.

Dr. D. Luke Mahler 2011 Prize Winner

This year’ s Fisher Prize is awarded to Dr. D. Luke Mahler, for his paper: Mahler, D. L., L. J. Revell, R. E. Glor, and J. B. Losos. 2010. Ecological opportunity and the rate of morphological evolution in the diversification of Greater Antillean anoles. Evolution 64:2731-2745.

           An important question for both adaptive radiation and speciation is whether the pace of both processes decreases over time as the niches in a new habitat become full. One way is to measure the rate of speciation itself, seeing if it declines over time as an adaptive radiation proceeds. The other, and the way investigated by Mahler et al. in this paper, is to determine whether morphological diversification slows down as an adaptive radiation matures. The authors studied 187 species of Anolis lizards in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, enabling them to make a phylogeny useful for testing the pace of morphological evolution as that group became “ mature.” They found that for several measures of body size (traits important in the ecology of Anolis) the rate of morphological evolution slowed down as time proceeded and, further, was negatively correlated with the diversity of lineages. This implies that as ecological “ opportunity” decreases when niche space fills up, species respond by becoming less morphologically diverse. This paper is an important contribution to the long-held but rarely tested idea that adaptive radiations have a defined temporal sequence, beginning with lots of speciation and diversification, whose pace then abates as ecological space becomes more occupied.

Dr. Mahler received his Ph.D. in 2011 from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University (his advisor was Dr. Jonathan Losos), and was also a NESCent Graduate Research Fellow. In 2011 he begins his position as a Center for Population Biology Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Davis.

Past Fisher Prize winners:
2010 Britt Koskella
2009 Megan Higgie
2008 R. Brian Langerhans
2007 Guillaume Martin
2006 Maurine Neiman

Nomination/Application for the 2012 R. A. Fisher Prize

The R. A. Fisher Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution for an outstanding Ph.D. dissertation paper published in the journal Evolution during a given calendar year. The award comes with a $1000 honorarium.

            Eligibility -- To be eligible for consideration, a manuscript must be based on graduate work of the primary author.

            Nominations/Application -- Authors of eligible manuscripts may initiate a nomination upon acceptance of their manuscripts for publication. Nominations must include the final version of the manuscript, dissertation completion date, and a supporting letter from the Ph.D. supervisor or other individual familiar with the work. If the candidate is not the sole author of the paper, the supporting letter should identify the candidate’s role in completing the research and writing the paper.  Nominations for manuscripts published in 2011 will be accepted throughout the year but must arrive no later than January 31, 2012. The complete nomination should be submitted electronically to the SSE Secretary (John Kelly) at jkk@ku.edu.

The Hamilton Award                                                      

W. D. Hamilton Award for Outstanding Student Presentation. 

The Hamilton Award will be given to a student who has presented an outstanding talk at the annual meeting, as judged by a committee of SSE members. Applicants will present their papers during regular sessions of the meeting, appropriate for their topic. The most competitive talks will be those that can convey a complete story. Such talks are most likely to be given by students who are close to completing their dissertations or by former students who wish to present results from a dissertation defended within the past year. Talks that primarily present preliminary data or just an initial part of a dissertation are not likely to be competitive, and we strongly suggest that those students wait to compete for this award.

Award:  The winner of the award will receive $1,000 and a one year membership to the Society for the Study of Evolution, which includes a one year subscription to the journal Evolution.  Up to two Honorable Mentions will each receive a one-year membership to the Society for the Study of Evolution, including a subscription to Evolution.   

Eligibility: The presenter must currently be enrolled in a graduate program or have received her or his degree within twelve months of the date of the annual meeting, and must be a member of the SSE.  Talks that are part of invited symposia are ineligible if they are longer than other contributed papers. 

Application procedure:  Students must indicate their desire to be considered for the Hamilton Award by e-mailing an abstract of their talk <400 words in length to the SSE Awards committee as indicated on the annual meeting website.  The committee will select talks for consideration based on the abstract, and notify selected finalists before the paper submission deadline.

2011 Winner

William Ratcliff, University of Minnesota
Title: Experimental evolution of multicellularity

2011 Honorable Mention

Sarah Bodbyl Roels, University of Kansas
Rapid evolution caused by pollinator loss in Mimulus guttatus

Christopher Oufiero, University of California at Riverside
Does the evolution of a sexually selected trait compromise sprint and endurance performance in Xiphophorus swordtails and their close relatives?

(View ALL Recipients)

Rosemary Grant Awards for Graduate Student Research

The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) is pleased to announce the annual Rosemary Grant Graduate Student Research Award competition. These awards are to assist students in the early stages of their Ph.D (first two years). programs by enabling them to collect preliminary data (to pursue additional sources of support) or to enhance the scope of their research beyond current funding limits (e.g. by visiting additional field sites, or working at other labs). Students will need to demonstrate how the proposed work is outside any related funding for the project already held by the student or advisor. (View ALL Recipient)

2011 Recipients
Gerardo Arceo‐Gómez,   University of Pittsburgh,  Advisor: Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman
Lisa N. Barrow,   Florida State University,  Advisor: Dr. Emily Lemmon
Thomas D. Brekke,   University of Montana,  Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Good
Sally Marie Chambers,   Purdue University,  Advisor: Dr. Nancy Emery
Gerardo Antonio Cordero,   Iowa State University,  Advisor:  Dr. Fredric Janzen
Rongfeng Cui,   Texas A&M University,  Advisor: Dr. Gil Rosenthal
James C. Cureton II,   University of Oklahoma,  Advisor: Dr. Richard E. Broughton
Kira Delmore,   University of British Columbia,  Advisor: Dr. Darren Irwin
Elizabeth M. Droge-Young,   Syracuse University,  Advisor: Scott Pitnick
Sarah W. Fitzpatrick,   Colorado State University,  Advisor: W. Christopher Funk
Elisabeth Jane Forrestel,   Yale University,  Advisor: Michael Donoghue
Chang Seok Han,   University of New South Wales,  Advisor: Robert Brooks
Rachel E. Hanauer,   Indiana University,  Advisor: Ellen D. Ketterson
Kayla M. Hardwick,   University of Idaho,  Advisor: Erica Bree Rosenblum
Sarah M. Hird,   Louisiana State University,  Advisor: Drs. Robb Brumfield, Bryan Carstens
Elizabeth J. Kleynhans,   University of British Columbia,  Advisor: Drs. Sarah Otto, Mark Vellend
Matthew H. Koski,   University of Pittsburgh,  Advisor: Tia-Lynn Ashman
Ezra Lencer,   Cornell University,  Advisor: Amy McCune
Chase Mason,   University of Georgia,  Advisor: Lisa Donovan
Alicia Mastretta­Yanes,   University of East Anglia,  Advisor: Dr Brent Emerson
George Andrew Meindl,   University of Pittsburgh,  Advisor: Tia-Lynn Ashman
Julie S. Miller,   Cornell University,  Advisor: H. Kern Reeve
Tara A Pelletier,   Louisiana State University,  Advisor: Bryan C Carstens
Rebecca H. Penny,   Indiana University,  Advisor: Lynda Delph
Cheryl Pinzone,   University of Georgia,  Advisor: Kelly Dyer
Diana Jessie Rennison,   University of British Columbia,  Advisor: Dolph Schluter
Leila Teruko Shirai,   Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal,  Advisor: Dr. Patrícia Beldade
Angela Stathos,   University of Montana,  Advisor: Lila Fishman
Alexa R. Warwick,   Florida State University,  Advisor: Emily Moriarty Lemmon
Corlett Wolfe Wood,   University of Virginia,  Advisor: Edmund Brodie III
LengxobYong,   East Carolina University,  Advisor: Jeffrey S. McKinnon

Applications for the 2012 Rosemary Grant Awards for Graduate Student Research

The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) is pleased to announce the 2012 Rosemary Grant Graduate Student Research Award competition. These awards are to assist students in the early stages of their Ph.D. programs by enabling them to collect preliminary data (to pursue additional sources of support) or to enhance the scope of their research beyond current funding limits (e.g. by visiting additional field sites, or working at other labs). Students will need to demonstrate how the proposed work is outside any related funding for the project already held by the student or advisor.

To be considered for this year's award, application materials, including letters of recommendation, must be received electronically by APRIL 1, 2012, 2pm Pacific Standard Time.

Applicants AND their mentors must be members of SSE, and are advised to join SSE, if not already members, as soon as possible to facilitate their applications (to join go to:  https://payments.botany.org/joinsse/). This is the second year of the award. Previous awardees may not re-apply, but previous applicants who were not selected for funding last year are encouraged to re-apply. Awards will range from $1,500 - $2500 and approximately twenty awards will be made. Focus on convincing the awards committee of the importance of the question, how the funds will allow you to reach certain objectives, and how these objectives fit into your overall thesis schedule, while also demonstrating that the research is sufficiently independent that funds from your mentor cannot be applied.  Only Ph.D. students in their FIRST TWO YEARS are eligible. Funding is not limited to any particular aspect of research.

How to apply
All application materials must be in electronic format. Applicants and their recommender are required to use .pdf format, to minimize difficulties in file transfer. Applicants should send all materials (except the letter of reference) in a SINGLE pdf file. Letter of recommendation should be sent separately by the referee in .pdf format; please include the FULL NAME OF APPLICANT in the recommendation letter. All material, including letter of reference must be formatted to have one inch margins (= 2.5 cm) and 12 font.

Applicants must submit (as a .pdf file):

1. a curriculum vitae (one page);
2. A brief research proposal, with title page (must include: title of proposal, name of student, student's email address, mentor's name and mentor's email address, student's institutional and departmental affiliation, year of student's study, and statement of student's affiliation in SSE) followed by objectives, methods, significance, and schedule (max. two single-spaced pages including title, literature cited and any figures and tables), as well as an explanation as to how this work is independent from the mentor's funding;
3. Budget and budget justification (1 page), and:
4. One letter from the student's current graduate advisor, and this letter must clearly state in the first line that the mentor is a member of SSE and does not have major funds available to do this project (i.e., the proposed research does not fall under the umbrella of the mentor's currently funded research), FOLLOWED by a second statement that the student is in their FIRST TWO  YEARS.

Applicants: Please email all application materials and queries to SSE Awards Committee SSE.RosemaryAwards@EvolutionSociety.org. THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE E-MAIL MUST STATE: "RosemaryGrantAward: APPLICANTS LAST NAME, FIRST INITIAL".

Reccomenders: Please email your letter to the SSE Awards Committee, SSE.RosemaryAwards@EvolutionSociety.org. THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE E-MAIL MUST STATE: "RosemaryGrantAward: APPLICANTS LAST NAME, FIRST INITIAL, Ref.Letter".

To be considered for this year's award, application materials, including letters of recommendation, must be received electronically by APRIL 1, 2012, 2pm Pacific Standard Time.

The award winners will be announced at the SSE banquet.  SSE would be pleased if you consider submitting work funded by the Rosemary Grant award to EVOLUTION. All work published with funds from the award should acknowledge the award as funded by the Rosemary Grant Student Research Award from SSE, and a full citation of the work should be submitted to SSE within 2 months of publication.

Members are encouraged to contribute to the Rosemary Grant Graduate Student Research award program.