Evolution Of Societies

[Agnella Datson]

TheTheodosius Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding early-career evolutionary biologist. The prize was established in memory of Professor Dobzhansky by his friends and colleagues, and reflects his lifelong commitment to fostering the research careers of young scientists.

The SSE Presidents' Award for Outstanding Dissertation Paper in Evolution is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution for an outstanding PhD dissertation paper published in the journal Evolution during a given calendar year.

The Stephen Jay Gould Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained and exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance in biology, education, and everyday life in the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould. This prize will not be offered in 2024.

The Hamilton Award will be given to a student or recent graduate who has presented an outstanding talk at the annual meeting, as judged by a committee of SSE members. Applicants will present their papers during regular sessions of the meeting, appropriate for their topic. The most competitive talks will be those that can convey a complete story.

This award named in honor of Darwin's very public supporter T. H. Huxley, was established in 2013 to recognise outreach and education achievement for early and mid career scientists. Winners of this award are provided with support to present on behalf of the Society for the Study of Evolution at the annual meeting of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT). Annual calls for nomination will be advertised on the SSE web site and through appropriate Evolutionary Biology web sources such as EVOLDIR in late January/early February.

The American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists announce the call for nominations for the 1st annual ASN/SSE/SSB Inclusiveness, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Award. The IDEA Award will be given to a person at any career stage who has strengthened the ecology and evolutionary biology community by promoting inclusiveness and diversity in our fields. The award can also be presented to a group. The recipient will receive a plaque at the annual meeting of ASN/SSB/SSE and a $1000 honorarium.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was created to recognize individuals who have made substantial contributions to the study of evolution, who have demonstrated outstanding mentorship of trainees, and/or who have provided noteworthy service to the evolution community. Nominations should be submitted by April 1.

Rosemary Grant Advanced Awards: The GREG - Rosemary Grant Advanced Awards are to assist students in the later stages of their PhD programs. Funds can be used to enhance the scope of dissertation research, such as to conduct additional experiments or field work. Awards up to $3500. Only PhD students who have completed at least 24 months of PhD work and are at least 12 months from degree completion at the proposal due date are eligible. Eligibility can be confirmed by the advisor or graduate director stating that the student fulfills these requirements. Students must confirm that the proposed work is outside other funding held by either the student or their advisor.

The SSE Council and GSAC invite proposals for grants up to $3,000 to help support Society-sponsored Early-career Vocational Opportunities (EVO) Workshops. This is a new program to provide valuable learning opportunities for Society graduate students and postdocs. The topic of the workshop can be anything, and material can be presented in any format, as long as it is interactive and its content serves to provide foundational skills that are appropriate for early-career SSE members in the areas of conceptual understanding, data collection, data analysis, or professional development. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. (Paused for 2023.)

The Society for the Study of Evolution supports symposia (typically two) at its annual meetings in order to highlight new topics, provide new perspectives, or generate new syntheses. The exact configuration of symposia may vary from year to year, but proposals should tentatively assume six half-hour slots. The Society provides support for organizers and participants in sponsored symposia to attend and present at the annual meeting (up to $9000 per symposium).

This program is for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows interested in attending and presenting at the in-person annual Evolution meeting, especially those who need additional financial support in order to attend. This program replaces the SSE Graduate Student and Postdoc Travel Supplement.

The Undergraduate Diversity at Evolution (UDE) program sends undergraduate students to the annual Evolution meeting, the joint meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB), and the American Society of Naturalists (ASN). At the meeting, students will (i) present a poster, (ii) receive mentoring from graduate students, postdocs, and faculty, and (iii) participate in a career-oriented 'Undergraduate Futures in Evolutionary Biology' panel and discussion. Each selected awardee receives conference registration, round-trip airfare, dorm accommodations (double occupancy), a $200 meal stipend, and a ticket to the Super Social. Learn more on the UDE Program page.

These stipends are for students and young scientists to attend the annual Evolution meeting. Awards may also be used to attend the annual meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). Scientists working in a country with high GDP are not eligible.

The SSE International Committee invites applications for the International Event Grants, which provide funding for international symposia, workshops, courses, and other events within the field of evolutionary biology, including virtual events. Our priority is to support events that benefit emerging communities in the field of evolutionary biology. The diversity of participants and invited speakers will be considered as a criterion for selection.

Learn more and apply by September 15, 2024.

The SSE GSAC is looking for three new council members to join our 2025 cohort. Details below!

The 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 be a source of information for students and postdocs during their graduate school career and as they make career transitions, and to provide an early-career perspective to the rest of the SSE council. For example, recently we took a leading role in putting on the GREG Seminar Series, in-person workshops and networking events during the annual Evolution meeting, virtual International Symposia Series, and the SSE Caregiver Award.

Eligibility & Requirements

GSAC members must be graduate students at the time of application and members of SSE. (Learn more about how to join.) Applicants should be organized, possess leadership skills, and be interested in working with SSE Council and members to contribute to the Society. Many more details about our activities throughout the year can be found in our GSAC blog post from the former SSE Community Blog.

We strongly encourage those with non-traditional pathways to graduate school, those from non-R1 universities, and those from outside the United States to apply. GSAC is also committed to diverse representation, and we encourage applicants from historically excluded ethnic, gender, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Duties

Students serve either a 2 or 3 year term, depending on whether they are chair of their cohort, and generally spend 5-10 hours per month on GSAC activities. Please see page 25 in the Officers Handbook for more details about requirements and current roles.

How to Apply

To apply, please submit the following to GS...@evolutionsociety.org by August 30th, 2024 (any time zone):

The Evolution Code of Conduct commtitee is recruiting new EvoAllies for the Evolution meetings as part of our Safe Evolution initiative. The goal of the program is to improve the climate at the meetings, making them more welcoming for everyone. It is not enforcement (we have a safety officer to investigate and sanctioning committee to put in place any sanctions if warranted), but rather to help de-escalate situations, direct people to resources to help them, and to identify any problems.

People who sign up and are selected must attend a two hour online training on June 11, at 11 am US Eastern time (3 pm UTC, 8 am US Pacific) by members of the UT CLIMBS team and members of the Code of Conduct Committee.

We want to recruit people with a variety of life experiences, perspectives, and career stages. Our goal is to make people feel safe at the meeting; to that end, if you are facing or have faced questions about your possible misconduct, or have other reasons why your selection would be controversial, we ask that you do not sign up.

Applications will be evaluated by a subset of members of the Code of Conduct Committee and current EvoAllies. Applications close June 7 at 5 pm US Eastern time; chosen applicants will be notified by June 10 at noon US Eastern time.

Submit your application here by June 7 at 5 pm Eastern.

SSE Council is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award, Dr. Ruth Shaw.

Dr. Shaw was selected for her fundamental empirical and conceptual contributions to evolutionary biology and her commitment to SSE. Dr. Shaw has developed foundational methods for statistical inferences about fitness in natural populations. She has implemented these methods in the field to assess fitness in natural populations, such as in The Echinacea Project, studying the long-lived Echinacea angustifolia to evaluate the consequences of habitat fragmentation in tallgrass prairie. Dr. Shaw has also advanced understanding of the fitness effects of de novo mutations, capacity for ongoing evolutionary adaptation, and geographic scale of adaptation in wild populations. Dr. Shaw has served in numerous roles in SSE since 1991, most recently as President in 2020.

Dr. Shaw will present the Lifetime Achievement Award talk at the virtual portion of the 2024 Evolution meeting on Friday, June 28 at 7:45 am Eastern (GMT-4). Visit the Evolution meeting website for the full program and to register.

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