Society of Systematic Biologists

The Society of Systematic Biologists is pleased to announce the availability of awards for revisionary taxonomy and systematics, modeled after the NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Advancing Revisionary Taxonomy and Systematics (ARTS) recently developed within the Systematics and Biodiversity Science Cluster. We are calling these 'mini-ARTS' grants. These awards are designed to allow SSB members (students, post-docs, and faculty) to spend a summer or semester apprenticed to an expert in a particular taxonomic group or to enhance revisionary taxonomic and systematics research in novel ways. Goals of this award program are to address constraints on our knowledge of undescribed biodiversity, assist in passing on taxonomic expertise before it is lost, increase the number of students with broad training in organismal biology and systematics, and support projects in biodiversity and taxonomy informatics as well as monographic and revisionary taxonomy. Activities can include a trip to the taxonomist's laboratory, pay for the taxonomist to visit the applicant's laboratory for a period of time, or pay for costs of computer time or development of interactive keys for electronic dissemination of systematics results. Requests for support may be in any amount up to $3,000. We will fund two or three of these awards this year.

As a result of a tight SSB budget the last several years, Scholarships and travel awards for scientists from developing countries will not be given until further notice.

The President's Award is given to a person who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the field over the course of many years. The recipient is selected by three people - the past [chair], present and future presidents - and is given once every three years.

The first award was presented to Dave Swofford in 1998. Systematists of a certain age will fondly remember the happy times spent resetting the date on their Macs in order to squeeze a little more life out of their beta copies of PAUP*.

The Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) announces the 2013 annual Graduate Student Research Award competition. The purpose of these awards is to assist students in the initiation (first two years) of their systematics projects and in the collection of preliminary data to pursue additional sources of support (e.g., Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants from the National Science Foundation) or to enhance dissertation research (e.g., by visiting additional field collection sites or museums). Applicants may be from any country, but must be members of SSB, and are advised to join the Society as soon as possible to facilitate their applications (to join go to: http://systbio.org/?q=node/6). Previous awardees may not re-apply, but previous applicants who were not selected for funding are encouraged to re-apply. Awards will range between $1200 - $2000 and approximately 10 - 15 awards will be made. The list of awardees below includes examples of successful proposals for you to download.

This Award is sponsored by Systematic Biology's publisher. The award is presented to the two best papers based on student research published in Systematic Biology during the previous year. The lead author must have been a student at the time the research was conducted. The Publisher's Award is $US 500 and is presented at the annual meeting to the student authors. If an article is co-authored by 2 or more students then special arrangements can be made to ensure appropriate recognition of each. The award was initiated with Volume 48 (1998) and the first award was presented at the 1999 meeting. The winner is selected by a committee consisting of the President and the Editor. No application is required.

To encourage students starting out in systematics the Society sponsors the following awards.

The Ernst Mayr Award in Systematic Biology

Society of Systematic Biologists Awards for Graduate Student Research

The Publisher's Award for Excellence in Systematic Research

"Integrating biodiversity science for human well being"
9-12 November 2005; Hotel Mision de Los Angeles - Oaxaca, Mexico

Bringing together international experts from biological, ecological and socio-economic disciplines, the First DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference will be entirely dedicated to the most pressing questions in biodiversity science:

From the web site:

Synopsis of Program:
The Congress of the International Society of Developmental Biologists (ISDB) will be held in Sydney, Australia, 3 - 7 September 2005. ISDB is the joint society of developmental biology societies worldwide and holds its Congress every four years in beautiful and strategically located cities around the world.

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCENT) calls for proposals for up to 10 PostDoctoral and 5 Sabbatical fellowships. Please see www.nescent.org for details about applications.

PostDoctoral and Sabbatical Fellowships will support ambitious, synthetic research on any aspect of evolutionary biology and relevant disciplines.

American Museum of Natural History
New York, NY, USA

May 16-18, 2005

Gonzalo Giribet
Associate Professor of Biology and Associate Curator of Invertebrates Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology Harvard University

Ward Wheeler
Curator of Invertebrates
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History