The Hamilton Award                                                      

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?

2010 Winner

Amanda Izzo, University of Michigan
Title: Females gain direct benefits in a non-economic, lek-based mating system
Studying the European paper wasp, Amanda Izzo asked what benefits do females gain by mating with males of different phenotypes. Her work addresses the puzzle of female preferences in systems where thie is no obvious resource transfers. She showed that transfer of the sperm mass to the female during mating confers a direct overwinter survival advantage that depends on the quality of males. In contrast to the known cases where males transfer deleterious compounds to females, this work presents a novel example of a beneficial transfer.

2010 Honorable Mention

Benjamin Blackman, Duke University
Gene duplication and evolutionary innovation during sunflower domestication

Christopher Martin, University of California – Davis
Exceptional morphological diversification rates in two adaptive radiations of Cyprinodon pupfishes

David Lowry, University of Texas – Austin
A life-history altering chromosomal inversion involved in adaptation and ecological reproductive isolation

Ian Wang, University of California – Davis
Reduced conspicuousness evolves with increased toxicity in an aposematic poison frog