Honoraria and Travel Awards

History and Mission

President W. H. Burt established the Honoraria Committee in 1953 as the Committee on Honoraria for Graduate Students. Its name was shortened to ‘Honoraria Committee’ in 1968.  In 2012, awarding of travel grants was Annie M. Alexander (courtesy MVZ archives)added to the committee’s function and the name was changed to the ‘Honoraria and Travel Awards Committee'. Thus, the committee has several missions.  First is to select graduate students to be honored for their research in mammalogy.  At present four named awards are given: the Anna M. Jackson Award, the A. Brazier Howell Award, the Elmer C. Birney Award, and the Annie M. Alexander Award.  The Alexander award is for Master’s students and the other 3 awards are for either Masters or Doctoral students. Recipients are awarded a stipend to attend the annual meeting, where they present their papers at a plenary session. Second, the committee selects recipients of up to two Undergraduate Student Research Awards. Recipients of the undergraduate awards are awarded a stipend to attend the meetings where they will give either an oral or poster presentation during regular paper sessions.  Finally, the committee awards travel grants, including awards to early career mammalogists and awards to students at any rank.  The function of the committee is to advertise the awards widely, to receive and review application material, and to select awardees.   (Annie Alexander photograph courtesy of MVZ archives)

Responsibilities

The duty of this committee is to select graduate students and undergraduates to be honored for their research in mammalogy and to provide travel awards to early career mammalogists and to students at any rank by advertising the awards, receiving and reviewing application material, and selecting awardees.

Currently awards are advertised in the Journal of Mammalogy, on the ASM website, and on the Mammal-L listserv.

The application process is online and the deadline is 11:59 pm 15 February. Applications are forwarded to the committee members for review as quickly as practical after the deadline.

Applications are ranked and returned to the committee Chair in early March. Rankings are summed by the Chair and awardees determined. If there is ambiguity in the initial rankings from the committee, the Chair facilitates consensus by contacting the committee for further discussion. Results are sent to the applicants around 15 March.

Names of award recipients must be provided to the Program Committee by the end of March to ensure that the information is printed in the program.

The Chair should assure that a new announcement for each award type must be submitted to the Editor of the Journal of Mammalogy and posted on the website. The initial change to Journal of Mammalogy must be submitted by 1 August; thereafter, the announcement appears without special submission.
 

Chair

V. Hayssen (vhayssen@science.smith.edu)

Members

L. J. Dizney, S. A. Jansa, J. E. Light, K. Lucia , M. D. Matocq, J. Reichard, T. E. Roberts, R. J. Rowe, J. E. Smith, P. T. Stapp, K. K. Thorington, S. N. Vignieri

Call for Student Honoraria Papers

Online Submission

The competition is open to all graduate student members of the American Society of Mammalogists, regardless of nationality or current institutional affiliation. [To become a member of the Society visit the ASM membership page here.] Applicants must be Masters or doctoral students (or have completed their degrees during the previous Fall term) when they apply. Applicants must not have received a previous Graduate Honorarium from ASM, or a Shadle or ASM Fellowship. However, recipients of ASM Grant-in-Aid of Research and Latin American Student Field Research are eligible and encouraged to apply. Students unsure of their eligibility are encouraged to contact the Honoraria Committee well in advance of the application deadline (vhayssen@science.smith.edu).

Applicants should note that the Honoraria Committee is composed of members from across different subdisciplines of mammalogy, and therefore are urged to write for a broad, scientifically literate audience and to avoid excessive jargon or technical terms. Collaborative work with multiple authors may be submitted, so long as the applicant has played the primary role in designing and conducting the research (the reference letter, see detailed instructions, should address this issue). We seek to recognize students who have been primarily responsible for the design and/or conduct of the submitted research project (normally the student’s thesis or dissertation research). Any reference letter that does not clearly address the student's role in the research project and his/her ability to present the work successfully at the Annual Meeting (see detailed instructions) will result in disqualification of the applicant.

Members of the Honoraria Committee review and rank applications based on originality, quality, and presentation of the research and the advisor’s letter of support. The three proposals with the highest overall ranking will be awarded. Each award carries an Honorarium of $1000, intended to subsidize attendance at the meeting.

Recipients of honoraria will present their research at the Plenary Session of the ASM Annual Meeting. These platform presentations will be 15 min in length (12 min for the oral presentation, 3 min for questions). Regardless of the outcome of the competition, applicants intending to present a paper at the Annual Meeting must submit the usual abstract and pre-registration materials to the local committee before the abstract deadline for the meeting.

Submit your research statement by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on 15 February. See here for detailed instructions.

Call for Undergraduate Student Research Papers

Online Submission

The American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) encourages undergraduate students to apply for the American Society of Mammalogists Undergraduate Student Research Awards to be presented at the annual meeting of the Society. The competition is open to all undergraduate student members of the American Society of Mammalogists, a long-standing society organized to promote the study of mammals. ASM has an international membership and encourages international students to join the Society and enter the competition. ASM student members currently enrolled in an undergraduate program who will not graduate before May of the current school year and who have not received a previous Undergraduate Award from ASM are eligible to apply. Two awards of $500, intended to subsidize attendance at the meeting, are available for recipients of the competition. The Honoraria Committee will review applications and select award recipients on the basis of the originality and quality of research and the student's curriculum vitae. To become a member of the Society visit the ASM membership page at www.mammalsociety.org/membership.

Applicants should submit a 200-250 word abstract for an oral or poster presentation, a 300-500 word summary of the research project, a curriculum vitae, and a letter from their research advisor. Authors must submit either PDF or Word files. No other formats will be accepted. Applications must be submitted electronically to www.mammalsociety.org/applications by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on 15 February. Please also email the chair of the committee [Virginia Hayssen, vhayssen@science.smith.edu] when you apply. The advisor's letter must be submitted separately from the student's material. Packets that do not meet the above requirements or are received after the deadline will not be considered. Applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision around 15 March.

Students receiving awards also must present an oral or poster presentation at the Annual Meeting. Applicants should also submit their abstract and pre-registration material to the local organizing committee before the regular abstract submission deadline for the meeting. For details about the next meeting, including abstract submission, see the ASM website here.

Questions should be directed to Dr. Hayssen (or via snail mail to Virginia Hayssen, Biology Department, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063 [413 585 3856]).