Society of Systematic Biologists

Please see below for the most recent, up-to-date information on submitting your talk for competition in the Mayr Symposium.

General Information. The Ernst Mayr Award is given to the presenter of the outstanding student talk in the field of systematics at the annual meetings of the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB). This is SSB's premier award, and is judged by the quality and creativity of the research completed over the course of the student's Ph.D. program. The award consists of $1000, a certificate of distinction, and a two-year subscription to the journal Systematic Biology.

Eligibility. Members of the Society who are students or have completed their Ph.D. within the last 15 months are eligible. Applicants may be from any country, but MUST be members of SSB, and are advised to join the Society as soon as possible to be considered (to join go to: http://systbio.org/?q=node/6). Previous Mayr award winners are not eligible.

Application Procedure.
1. To be considered for this award, you will need to submit a 400-word abstract of your talk to the Evolution 2013 meeting website (http://www.evolutionmeeting.org/) at the time of registration. Instructions for registering as a potential Mayr award contender will be given on the meeting website.
2. Abstracts should clearly indicate methods used, conclusions, and the relevance to systematics. Presentations focusing on other areas of biology (ecology, behavior, genetics, populations or molecular biology, etc.) that lack a strong systematics emphasis are not eligible.
3. Applications for this award will be accepted only until the end of early registration (April 19, 2013).
4. At the closing of early registration, a subset of applicants will be selected by the SSB Awards Committee to present their talks in the Mayr symposium during the meeting. All applicants will be notified about selection decisions approximately May 15.

Judging. Based on the submitted abstracts, the Mayr Awards Committee (appointed by the Awards Chair, Sean Brady) will select a maximum of 16 applicants for inclusion in the Mayr Award symposium.

The Mayr symposium will be held at a single venue as a continuous session. Talks will be judged on creativity, depth and excellence of research, and on quality of presentation. Competitive students are expected to be in the final stages of their doctoral program, presenting results of a major body of work.

Co-Authors. The talk may be co-authored. It is understood that the ideas, data and conclusions presented are primarily and substantially the work of the student presenter, and the intention is that the student presenter will be senior author on the published version of the paper. If a submission includes multiple authors, include a brief section below the abstract that outlines the contribution of each author to the research.

Notification of Winner. The winner of the award will be announced at the SSB business meeting in Snowbird and again during the banquet awards ceremony (complimentary ticket provided) at the conclusion of the Evolution Meetings, whereupon the winner will be given an award certificate (the check will be mailed). An announcement of the winner will also be published in Systematic Biology and placed on the SSB website (see last year's winner at http://systbiol.org/).

Previous Winners

2012 Chris Nasrallah, University of California, Berkeley
2011 Matthew Ogburn, Brown University
2010 David Winter, University of Otago, and
2010 Jeremy Brown, University of California, Berkeley
2009 Clemens Lakner, Florida State University, and
2009 Dan Rabosky, Cornell University
2008 John Paul, University of Pittsburgh
2007 Matt Brandley, University of California, Berkeley, and
2007 James Haile, Oxford University
2006 Catherine R. Linnen, Harvard University
2005 Jonathon Q. Richmond, University of Connecticut, Storrs, &
2005 Heather Maughan University of Arizona
2004 Christopher C. Witt, Louisiana State University
2003 Nicolas Salamin, University of Washington
2002 Lena Hileman, Yale University, and
2002 Todd Oakley, University of Chicago
2001 Geoff Morse, Harvard University, and
2001 Alexei Drummond, University of Auckland, and
2001 Adam Leache, Louisiana State University
2000 R. Craig Albertson, University of New Hampshire
1999 Frank 'Andy' Anderson, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, and
1999 George Weiblen, Harvard University
1998 Hopi E. Hoekstra, University of Washington, Seattle, and
1998 Jim McGuire, University of Texas, Austin
1997 Steven Poe, University of Texas, Austin
1996 Sharon Messenger, University of Texas, Austin
1995 Allan Cooper, Victoria University, NZ, and
1995 Scott Steppan, University of Chicago
1994 Anna Graybeal, University of California, Berkeley
1993 Michael Whiting, AMNH, New York
1992 Scott Edwards, University of California, Berkeley
1991 John Huelsenbeck,University of Texas, Austin
1990 No Award
1989 Richard Cloutier, University of Kansas
1988 Linda Ford, University of Kansas
1987 Darrel Frost, University of Kansas
1986 Linda Dryden, University of Kansas
1985 David Cannatella, University of Kansas
1984 Eldredge Birmingham, University of Georgia, Athens
1983 Janine Caira, University of Nebraska, and
1983 Richard O'Grady, University of British Columbia
1982 Jonathan Coddington, Harvard University
1981 Kevin de Queiroz, San Diego State University
1980 No Award
1979 Sadie Coats, University of California, Berkeley
1978 No Award
1977 Sharon Simpson, University of Illinois, Chicago
1976 Diane Calabrese, University of Connecticut