Student Involvement

Text: Graduate Student Advisory Committee. Headshots of Susu Cong, Jill Syrotchen, Robert Driver, María Tocora, Shirley Zhang, and Rujuta Vaidya. SSE logo.

Welcome New GSAC Leaders!

The Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) represents student and postdoc interests to Council and facilitates interaction among students and postdocs and between students, postdocs, and mentors. We are pleased to welcome our new leaders for 2024: 

María Tocora, PhD candidate, University of Toronto 
Shirley Zhang, PhD candidate, Cornell University
Rujuta Vaidya, PhD student, Louisiana State University

Thank you also to our returning GSAC leaders: Susu Cong (Chair, 2024), Robert Driver, and Jill Syrotchen. GSAC would also like to thank everyone who applied, making it a record year for interest in this committee!

About Student Membership

Students enjoy a reduced rate for SSE membership. Join today!

Follow us on Twitter! @SSEgrad

Visit the Diverse Careers Committee website for useful information from members of the Society for the Study of Evolution and related societies regarding career paths for MS students and PhD students getting their degrees in the broader field of evolutionary biology.

 

About the Graduate Student Advisory Committee

The SSE Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) represents student and postdoc interests to the SSE Council and facilitates interaction among students and postdocs and between students, postdocs, and mentors. Our goal is to become a source of information for students to use both during their graduate school career and as they make career transitions.

The primary role of all GSAC members is to communicate with the SSE's graduate student and postdoc membership and liaise with the SSE Council on their behalf. One GSAC member per cohort will be chosen to attend Council meetings. GSAC organizes multiple networking and professional development events for the summer Evolution meeting. Secondary roles include maintaining social media accounts to facilitate networking among SSE student members, assisting in the review of Lewontin GREG Award applications, and assisting with initiatives led by other SSE committees. Other roles are continuing to be established, and ideas are welcome! Students will serve either a 2 or 3 year term and generally spend 5-10 hours per month on GSAC activities. Please see the GSAC structural document in the Officers Handbook for more details about requirements and current roles.





Current SSE GSAC Council Members

 

Robert Driver
Member 2022-2024, Chair 2023
I am a PhD candidate in the department of Biology at East Carolina University where I study the evolution of olfaction in birds.

Henry Arenas-Castro
Member 2021-2023, Chair 2022
I am a PhD candidate in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, Australia, where I study sexual selection and speciation in plants.

Haosu (Susu) Cong
Member 2023-2025, Chair 2024
I am a PhD candidate in Michigan State University, where I study the evolution of sexual dimorphic mating signals in Drosophila species.

Léonard Dekens
Member 2022-2023
I am a postdoc in the Applied Mathematics department of the Paris Cité University, where I study the influence of sexual reproduction and spatial structure on the evolutionary dynamics of complex traits through the mathematical analysis of quantitative genetic models.

Cathy Hernandez
Member 2022-2023
I am a postdoc in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at Yale University, where I study bacteria-phage interactions using experimental evolution.

Jill Syrotchen
Member 2023-2024
I am a PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. I use the Mimulus system to investigate phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation with a combination of quantitative genetic, genomic, and field experiments.



Student Awards

Graduate Research Excellence Grants
W.D. Hamilton Award
T.H. Huxley Award
SSE Presidents' Award for Outstanding Dissertation Paper in Evolution
Outreach grants
Graduate/Postdoc Travel Awards
International Committee Travel Awards



Past GSAC Members

Elizabeth Carlen 
Member 2020-2022, Chair 2021

Emily Laub
Member 2021-2022

Sally Chang
Member 2019-2021, Chair 2020

Catherine Chen
Member 2020-2021

Erin Giglio
Member 2020-2021

Liz Lange
Member 2018-2020, Chair 2019

Andis Arietta
Member 2019-2020
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Jodie Wiggins
Member 2017-2019, Chair 2018

José Cerca
Member 2018-2019 

Melissa Plakke
Member 2018-2019

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Megan Kobiela
Member 2016-2018, Chair 2017

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Daren Card
Member 2017-2018

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Cathy Rushworth
Member 2013-2017, Chair 2013-2016

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Melissa E. Kemp
Member 2016-2017

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Aide Macias Muñoz
Member 2016-2017

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Karl Grieshop
Member 2014-2016


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