Student Presentation Awards

AFO is proud to recognize outstanding student presentations at our annual meetings. To be considered for a student presentation award, see the criteria listed on the conference web site each year.

Past recipients:

2009: Congratulations to the following students who received presentation awards from AFO at the joint meeting of the AFO and the Wilson Ornithological Society in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Best Oral Presentations (3 awards):

• ALEJANDRO RICO-GUEVERA, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Connecticut (Advisor: Dr. Margaret Rubega), "Evolutionary insights about the bill structure of nectivores"
• JASON HILL, Ph.D. candidate, Pennsylvania State University (Advisor: Dr. Duane Diefenbach), "Post-fledging movement, behavior, and habitat use of adult Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows"
• SARAH KINGSTON, Ph.D. candidate, University of Maryland and National Museum of Natural History (Advisor: Dr. William Fagan), "Genome–wide levels of introgression and divergence across Mexican Towhee hybrid zones"

Best Poster Presentation:

• KRISTEN M. LEAR, Undergraduate, Ohio Wesleyan University (Advisor: Dr. Jed Burtt), "Netting Methods Influence Age Distribution in Samples of Cliff Swallows."

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2008: Competition was stiff for the student presentation awards at the joint meeting of the AFO and the Wilson Ornithological Society in Mobile, Alabama in April 2008. Congratulations to the following students who stood out and received presentation awards from AFO.

Best Oral Presentations (3 awards):

• MEGAN FITZPATRICK, Undergraduate, Albion College (Advisors: Douglas W. White and E. Dale Kennedy), “The Effects of Thermal Environment on Incubation Behavior in House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon)"
• MIKAELA G. HOWIE, M.S. degree candidate, William and Mary College (Advisor: Dr. Dan Cristol), “The infiltration of aquatic mercury into a terrestrial ecosystem"
• RYAN BURDGE, M.S. degree candidate, William and Mary College (Advisor: Dr. Dan Cristol), “Eastern Bluebirds on golf courses: nestling pesticide exposure and diet"

Best Poster Presentation:

• ERIK JOHNSON, Ph.D. candidate, Louisiana State University (Advisor: Dr. Phil Stouffer), “Ectoparasites affect bird condition in neotropical forest fragments";

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2007: Outstanding student presentation awards were presented for the first time ever at the 2007 annual meeting of the AFO at the University of Maine in Orono. Students received a two-year memberships in the AFO. In addition, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Co., W.H. Freeman Publishing Co., Sinauer Publishing Co., Oxford University Press and Princeton University Press all donated prizes (books) for students. The AFO is most grateful to these companies. Student presentation awards will now be a regular and prominent feature of annual AFO meetings.

Best Oral Presentations:

• SUSAN B. SMITH, University of Rhode Island, "Influence of diet and food availability on fuel use and storage in songbirds during autumn migration in Rhode Island"
• ANDREA TOWNSEND, Cornell University, "A test of the genetic benefits hypothesis for extra-pair paternity in the American Crow"

Best Oral Presentations - Honorable Mention:

• BRENT HORTON, University of Maine, "Corticosterone as a factor in parental behavior in male White-throated Sparrows"
• JASON TOWNSEND, SUNY-ESF, Syracuse, "Bicknell's Thrush overwinter ecology in the Dominican Republic"

Best Poster Presentation:

• JULIA MACKENZIE, Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, "Impact of non-native flora on breeding success of Blue and Great Tits"