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Student Presentation Awards

Students presenting a poster or oral paper at an AOU meeting may apply to be considered for a student presentation award. Four awards will be given, including an award (the Robert B. Berry Student Award) for the most outstanding presentation on research pertaining to avian conservation.

Deadline: 1 May 2011, 12 noon (EST). The online application form will be taken down at that time.

To be eligible, applicants must be:

  1. Sole author or lead author of a poster or oral paper presented by the student at the meeting.
  2. A full-time or recently graduated student. Students graduating the semester prior to the meeting are also eligible for presentation awards. Undergraduate students are also eligible for presentation awards.
  3. A member of the AOU at the time of registration. Students who are not currently members are encouraged to become members, and thereby become eligible for student awards, before registering for the meeting. Students may also be eligible for AOU Student Membership Awards.
  4. Cannot be presenting in a symposia.

Travel and presentation award applications use the same online submission form. Submit only one application, even if you are applying for multiple awards.

Awards will be made based on quality of both research and presentation. Presentation Awards have a limit of once per lifetime. Students may receive both a research award and a travel award in the same year.

Students presenting a poster or oral paper at the 2013AOU/COS meeting may apply to be considered for a student presentation award.

For this meeting, students may compete for student travel awards by submitting an application through Ornithology Exchange. NOTE: If you are not already a member of Ornithology Exchange, you will need to register. The registration link is in the upper right corner of the Ornithology Exchange home page. It takes just a few seconds to register.

Students presenting a poster or oral paper at the 2013AOU/COS meeting in Chicago may apply to be considered for a student presentation award. Applications for these are due 3 May 2013. All applicants must also submit a regular scientific abstract through the meeting website by May 3 (oral paper) or May 10 (posters), 2013. Awards are contingent on acceptance of the scientific abstract by the Scientific Program Committee.

To be eligible, applicants must be:

  1. Sole author or lead author of a poster or oral paper presented by the student at the meeting.
  2. A full-time or recently graduated student. Students graduating the semester prior to the meeting are also eligible for presentation awards. Undergraduate students are also eligible for presentation awards.
  3. Applicants must be AOU or COS members. Students who are not currently members are encouraged to become members.
  4. Cannot be presenting in a symposia.

Students may apply for both a presentation award and a travel award in the same year. Students may receive only one presentation award from AOU and one from COS per lifetime.

To apply, please go to: http://ornithologyexchange.org/meetings/aou-cos-2013/travel_app.html. You will need to provide:

  1. A C.V. (maximum 1 page)
  2. An expanded abstract. This should be a maximum of 3 pages (including references, tables, and figures) using a 12 point font. The expanded abstract should state objectives, methods, major results and scientific significance. Please include the abstract and cv into a single file.
  3. A short email from the academic advisor indicating the student is in good standing. This should be emailed to rkimball@ufl.edu or provided to the Ornithology Exchange website (details provided on the site).

2011 Winners, 127th Stated Meeting, Jacksonville

AOU PRESENTATION awards were given at the annual banquet to four students for excellence in the rigor and quality of their scientific papers. (Berry Award)  The award for the best student conservation presentation was presented to KRISTEN DYBALA, University of California, Davis, for "Age matters: adult and juvenile survival rates will respond differently to climate change." 

The three general awards are unranked and were presented to ALLISON COX, University of Missouri, for "Prospecting behavior, post-fledging survival, and the influence of forest cover during natal dispersal in a resident bird;" 

REBECCA HEISS, University of Memphis, for "Oxidative stress and trade-offs in the cooperatively breeding Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens);" and 

CHRISTOPHER TONRA, University of Maine, for "The role of testosterone in seasonal interactions: observational and experimental studies in the American Redstart."

2010 Winners, 128th Stated Meeting, San Diego

These awards are unranked and were presented at the annual banquet to KATHI BORGMANN of the Univ. Arizona, Tucson, for "The nest-concealment paradox: new insights from empirical, comparative, and experimental approaches," 

RUSSELL LIGON of Auburn Univ. for "Feeding sexy sons sometimes: feeding decisions of eastern bluebirds are situationally influenced by fledgling plumage color," and 

DAIZABURO SHIZUKA of U. C. Santa Cruz for "Coots use hatch order to learn to recognize and reject conspecific brood parasitic chicks." 

The Berry Award for the best student conservation presentation was awarded to PETER EPANCHIN of U. C. Berkeley, for "Indirect effects of nonnative fish on the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch."

2009 Winners, 127th Stated Meeting, Philadelphia

Morgan Tingley (University of California, Berkeley, “Birds track their Grinnellian niche in response to a century 1 of climate change”) - AOU Student Conservation Award

Mary Caswell Stoddard (University of Cambridge, “Host egg pattern mimicry by the Common Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus: objective methods based on avian visual perception”) - AOU Nellie Johnson Baroody Award

Gustavo A. Bravo (Louisiana State University, “Phylogenetic analysis of phenotypic divergence in the antbirds”) - AOU Council Award

Jason Keagy (University of Maryland, “Male general cognitive ability influences male mating success in the Satin Bowerbird”) - AOU Council Award