SCB Newsletter

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REPORT ON STUDENT AFFAIRS FROM THE 2004 ANNUAL MEETING

Of the record 1600 individuals who participated in this year's SCB meeting, an impressive 29% were students. Thanks to the efforts of our hosts, notably Eva Fearn and her staff, we were able to offer half a dozen student-oriented events. Two of the most popular events were the Board of Governors-student mixer and a publishing workshop offered by the editorial team of Conservation Biology. Many thanks to Gary Meffe (Editor), Ellen Main (Managing Editor), and Margaret Flagg (Editorial Assistant) for sharing their insights and experience with all of us. We hope to present additional practical workshops aimed at advancing student careers during future meetings.

The Student Affairs Committee is only one year old. The special touches at the 2004 meeting--including two pages describing student activities in the front of the printed meeting program--reflected the efforts of SCB's Executive Office, our local hosts, and the committee. However, we still have much work to do to build our capacity and expand our mission. Specifically, we are looking for members to assist with the following initiatives.

1. Developing a student-to-student mentoring program that will link students who speak English as a first language with students from around the world who need help editing or preparing manuscripts or gaining access to written materials. Another way for students, or student chapters with sufficient resources, to enhance the reach of conservation biology to students with inadequate financial resources is to sponsor SCB memberships for students in developing countries. Please contact me if you are a student interested in participating or represent a Section that wishes to work with us to identify students in need.

2. Raising funds to bring students to SCB's annual meetings. We must be more aggressive about defraying the costs of attending meetings.

Regardless of whether you are able to formally join the committee, I welcome your suggestions for making annual meetings a richer experience.

Aram Calhoun (calhoun@maine.edu), Chair

2004 STUDENT AWARDS

We received more than 80 student award abstracts in 2004. Abstracts were reviewed by Aram Calhoun, Carolyn Lundquist, Sandra Peters, and Jon Paul Rodríguez. Many thanks to these individuals for evaluating more than 300 pages of text.

Oral presentations by the 16 finalists were judged by Sarah Bekessy, Aram Calhoun, Mwangi Githiru, Carolyn Lundquist, Andy Mack, Jari Niemela, and Linda Olsvig-Whittaker.

All finalists received a cash award and a banquet ticket. The first- through fourth-place award winners also received gift certificates for books that were donated by Island Press, Oxford University Press, and Sinauer Associates.

First Place
Tara Martin
University of Queensland
Do experts know anything about birds and grazing? A Bayesian approach using expert opinion

Second Place
Sarah Greenleaf
Princeton University
Wild bees enhance pollination by honey bees

Third Place
Trond Larsen
Princeton University
Linking patterns, causes and functional consequences of changing biodiversity

Fourth Place
Noah Whiteman, University of Missouri
Princeton University
Host-parasite conservation genetics in the Galapagos Islands: pragmatic value of the forgotten bounty

FINALISTS

Alison Cameron--Extinction risk from climate change

Alan Clark--A double edge to environmental citizen suits

Samantha Fox--Understanding the demographics of a vulnerable flying-fox species

Thomas Gillespie--Forest fragmentation alters parasite dynamics in African primate populations

Patricia Harveson--Source-sink dynamics of Florida Key Deer on Big Pine Key

Mark Higgins--Rapid tropical forest inventory: a comparison of techniques from western Amazonia

Diego Martino--Temporary and mobile protected areas for the conservation of a palm tree landscape

Melanie Murphy--Landscape genetics: simulating multi-locus genetic to assess a novel spatial analysis technique

Meera Oommen--Woody plant richness across five spatial scales in the Indian western Himalaya: patterns and implications

Amber Pairis--Predicting California gnatcatcher distribution based on environmental variables

Tracy Turberville--Translocation as a conservation tool: repatriation of gopher tortoises to a formerly occupied site

Leonie Valentine--Responses of bird assemblages to management burning of riparian vegetation in grazed tropical savanna