Cooper Ornithological Society
Awards and Grants

Professional Awards

Young Professional Awards

Student Awards

Honorary Members


Katma Award

The newest award offered by the Cooper Ornithological Society is the Katma
Award, proposed and sponsored by Dr. Robert W. Storer. This award is intended to encourage the formulation of new ideas that could change the course of thinking about the biology of birds. It will be given to the author(s) of research articles, short communications, or commentaries (e.g., editorials, reviews) of any length published in any scientific venue that offers unconventional ideas or innovative approaches, backed by a well-reasoned argument. The Katma Award will be given only when it is merited, no more than once a year. A 3-person Selection Committee will annually review all papers published by the COS in the previous year, but may decide that none deserve the award that year. The award will be approximately $2500 plus a suitable certificate and will be given at the COS annual meeting. In addition, Katma funds may be used for activities that are consistent with the award, such as plenary lectures, symposia, and support of publication. A full explanation of the Katma Award was published in 2003, Volume 105(4):843 of The Condor.

The Katma Award was first presented in 2007 at the Annual Meeting in Moscow, Idaho. The following citation was published in Condor 109:992: The Katma Award for 2007 is presented to Marina Anciães and A. Townsend Peterson for their work entitled “Climate change effects on Neotropical manakin diversity based on ecological niche modeling” (Condor 108:778–791). This paper addressed a general topic that extends beyond birds in importance: the potential effects of climate change on species distributions, extinction vulnerability, and biodiversity. The authors used a novel technique (ecological niche modeling) together with a simplifying assumption that ecological niches will not evolve. This assumption can vary among species, but the authors chose a group of test species, the manakins, that show ecological conservatism across lineages, as an appropriate initial test. They used the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction to model ecological niches of each species, generated 100 models for each species, chose the 10 best models, and then applied differing climate change scenarios to examine predicted change effects on manakin distributions at an unusually broad geographic scale (Central and South America). Their results suggested that about half of the species might lose >80% of their modeled present-day distributions, and yielded novel predictions about potential extinction risks and biodiversity related to climate change. This approach has the potential to change views or engender discussion of climate change effects on bird species distributions, biodiversity, and conservation.

Loye and Alden Miller Research Award

At its 1993 Annual Meeting, the Cooper Ornithological Society initiated the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, which is given for lifetime achievement in ornithological research. Loye Holmes Miller (1874-1970) began his teaching career in 1904 at the Los Angeles State Normal School which later became UCLA, and he retired in 1943. It was only in the last nine years of his active service that the Ph.D. degree was awarded and, in that time, he had two M.A. and two Ph.D. students. Alden Holmes Miller (1906-1965), Loye's son, began his teaching career in 1931 in the Department of Zoology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. He remained on the faculty until his death 34 years later. Miller sponsored 28 Ph.D. students, 26 of them in avian biology. Among their students, those with a Ph.D. in avian biology total 166. Additionally, there are at least 40 whose Ph.D. topics were non-avian. To view their biographies, go here>>.
1993. George A. Bartholomew
1994. Storrs Olson
1995. Barbara B. DeWolfe
1996. William R. Dawson
1997. Robert W. Storer
1998. Russell Balda
1999. Gordon H. Orians
2000. Ernst W. Mayr
2001. Frank A. Pitelka
2002. Richard T. Holmes
2003. B. Rosemary and Peter Grant
2004. Alexander Skutch
2005. John A. Wiens
2006. Robert E. Ricklefs
2007. Robert B. Payne
2008. Peter R. Marler
2009. Frances C. James
2010. Keith A. Hobson
 2011. Susan Haig
2012. Thomas Martin
Painton Award

This award is a cash prize of at least $1,000 and is given only in odd-numbered years to the author of an outstanding paper published in the four preceding years in The Condor. At the discretion of the committee, but with the approval of the board, no award need be given. Funds for the award come from a bequest from Mr. Painton. By vote of the board, society funds may be used to increase the amount of this award.

View previous Harry R. Painton award recipients and download their winning articles here>>.


 
The Cooper Ornithological Society Young Professional Awards
for the joint meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union (131st Stated Meeting) and Cooper Ornithological Society (83rd Annual Meeting) (AOU/COS 2013) in Chicago, Illinois, August 13-17, 2013

The Young Professional Presentation Award (YPA) recognizes early-career ornithological researchers for their outstanding contributions to ornithology. Two awardees will be selected to present (~30 minutes each) at the Young Professional Award Plenary session held at AOU/COS 2013 meeting.  In addition, the two awardees will receive a cash prize, travel support to the AOU/COS 2013 meeting, and will be the honorary guest at a reception attended by the COS president, officers, and the YPA committee. Candidates must be COS members and must have either 1) graduated within three years of the annual meeting or 2) at the time of the meeting be in the final phase of graduate studies (last 9 months). In addition, candidates must be sole author (or senior author, if the presentation is co-authored) of the presentation and are expected to be first author of published papers reporting the research. Applicants will be notified by April 26, 2013. The Young Professional Award has a limit of one per person.

View the previous YPA recipients here.

To apply for the YPA for the AOU/COS 2013 joint meeting, submit the following items (as a single pdf attachment) via e-mail to Victoria J. Dreitz (Victoria.Dreitz@cfc.umt.edu) by 31 March 2013.
1.    2-page curriculum vitae indicating graduation date
2.    A mini-paper following the guidelines of ARTICLES submission outlined in Nature (click here for guidelines).  Body of text (abstract through discussion) should not exceed 1,500 words; literature cited, tables, figures, and figure captions are not included in the word count, but figures and tables are limited to 4 total (figures plus tables) elements.

We also encourage you to submit a standard abstract to the Program Committee Chair for the annual meeting (see website for more details: http://fieldmuseum.org/happening/aou-2013).  Please see the conference website (http://fieldmuseum.org/happening/aou-2013) for more information on awards, opportunities, and conference information.


 
Student Awards

Several presentation and travel awards are available to students attending the COS annual meeting. Learn more about the benefactors of these awards here>>.

A. Brazier Howell Award

The A. Brazier Howell Award is given for the best paper presented at the annual meeting. The candidate must be an amateur, a student, or must have received his/her degree since the last annual meeting, and must be the sole author (or senior author, if the paper is co-authored). The recipient must be a member of the society. This award comes with a cash award, one year paid membership in the COS, and a book on some ornithological topic. Brazier Howell was noted for his research on birds and mammals during the early 1900’s, and created the endowment that allows COS to publish The Condor and Studies in Avian Biology.

Frances F. Roberts Award

The Frances F. Roberts Award is given for an outstanding paper presented at the annual meeting. The candidate must be an amateur, a student, or must have received his/her degree since the last annual meeting, and must be the sole author (or senior author, if the paper is co-authored). This award comes with a cash award, one year paid membership in COS, and a book on some ornithological topic. Mrs. Roberts was a well known bird photographer and prominent member of the COS during the 1940s to1960s.

Board of Directors Awards

Up to two awards are given annually by the board to those students who present worthy papers or posters at the annual meeting and who do not win either the A. Brazier Howell Award or the Frances F. Roberts Award. The candidate must be an amateur, a student, or must have received his/her degree since the last annual meeting, and must be the sole author (or senior author, if the paper is co-authored). These awards come with a cash award, one year paid membership in COS, and a book on some ornithological topic.

Student Travel Awards

Students or recent graduates presenting a poster or oral paper at the 2013 AOU/COS meeting may be eligible for a travel or student presentation award. Applications for these are due 3 May 2013. All applicants must also submit a regular scientific abstract through the meeting website by May 3 (oral paper) or May 10 (posters), 2013. Awards are contingent on acceptance of the scientific abstract by the Scientific Program Committee.

Applicants must be:
  1. Sole author or lead author of a poster or oral paper presented by the student at the meeting.
  2. A full-time or recently graduated student. Students graduating the semester prior to the meeting are also eligible for presentation awards. Undergraduate students are also eligible for presentation awards.
  3. A member of the AOU or the COS.
  4. For presentation awards, students cannot be presenting in a symposia (though symposia presenters are eligible for travel awards).
  5. Students are limited to two student travel awards per lifetime from each AOU and COS; students are limited to one presentation award from each AOU and COS.
To apply, please go to: http://ornithologyexchange.org/meetings/aou-cos-2013/travel_app.html. If you have not already done so, you will need to sign up for Ornithology Exchange. You will need to provide:
  1. A C.V. (maximum 1 page)
  2. An expanded abstract. This should be a maximum of 3 pages (including references, tables, and figures) using a 12 point font. The expanded abstract should state objectives, methods, major results and scientific significance.
  3. A short email from the academic advisor indicating the student is in good standing. This should be emailed to rkimball@ufl.edu or provided to the Ornithology Exchange website. (Details are provided on the site.)

We anticipate making travel award decisions by June 2, 2013.

Student Presentation Award Application Requirements

To apply for a student presentation award for the 2013 AOU/COS meeting in Chicago, students should follow the instructions above regarding Student Travel and Presentation Awards.  The same application process will be used and students will be asked to indicate which award they are applying for, or whether they are applying for both travel and presentation awards.  For additional information about Student Presentation Awards, contact Anna Chalfoun (chalfouna@hotmail.com).

Restrictions

Travel awards have a limit of two per person.

A. Brazier Howell, Frances F. Roberts and Board of Directors awards have a limit of one per person.

Award Criteria

Awards will be made based on quality of research and presentation, and preference will be given to students in the final phases of completing their research as opposed to those presenting preliminary findings.

Questions may be directed to Susan Skagen (skagens@usgs.gov) or Rolf Koford (rkoford@iastate.edu).

Mewaldt-King Student Research Award

The 21th annual Mewaldt-King Student Research Awards will be announced by the Cooper Ornithological Society at the 2013 meeting in Chicago, Illinois. These $1,000 awards are designated in the memory of L. Richard Mewaldt and James R. King to support research that relates to the conservation of birds.  Research may be in any area of ornithology, but studies that involve demographics, breeding biology, or disease ecology may be particularly relevant, especially if the species is endangered, threatened, or otherwise of management concern. Studies of species from threatened ecosystems (e.g. old growth forest, wetlands) or with reference to large-scale conservation issues such as climate or landscape change are also of particular interest.

View the previous years' Mewaldt-King recipients and titles here>>.

Eligibility. 
Any graduate student (of any nationality) accepted to or enrolled in a Master's or Doctoral program at a university in the U.S. or elsewhere is eligible to apply.

2013 Application Deadline.
The application, and a letter from the student's major faculty advisor, must be received by the Mewaldt-King Award Committee on or before 11 January 2013.

Research Proposal Format
  1. Cover page bearing the student's name, academic affiliation, mailing and email addresses, the title of the proposal, and the name and email address of the student's major faculty advisor.
  2. Abstract (250 words).
  3. Introduction, including: (a) relevant background, (b) specific hypotheses to be tested, or questions asked, (c) relevance of proposed research to conservation biology.
  4. Proposed methods, analyses, and timetable.
  5. General categories of expenditures and total project budget including current and pending sources of support.
  6. Literature cited (follow format used by Condor; see http://www.cooper.org/publications/condorinstruc.pdf).
  7. Curriculum Vitae (CV)

The proposal abstract and text, including budget but excluding literature cited, should not be longer than 6 double-spaced pages with a 12-point font and 1 inch (25 mm) margins.  CV should be no more than three pages.  The entire proposal: cover page, proposal, budget, lit cited, and CV should be submitted as a single document.

Multiple documents will not be accepted.  Proposals that are improperly formatted or exceed page limits will not be reviewed.  Applicants will not receive comments from reviewers.

Application Requirements

All applications must be accompanied by a letter of support (submitted separately, email encouraged) from the applicant's major faculty advisor.  All other materials should be submitted as a single attachment via email directly to the Chair of the committee at the address below.  Acceptable electronic file formats are Word, Rich Text Format, and pdf files.  Files in other formats will not be accepted.  Files should be named using the student's last name and first initial (e.g. SmithC.doc).  Please include Mewaldt-King in the subject heading of your email.  International students lacking internet access may submit printed copies of their materials by the published deadline and should include a self-addressed envelope to facilitate notification of the committee's decision.  Electronic copies submitted on floppy disks via postal service will not be accepted.

Dr. Jeff Stratford
Chair, Mewaldt-King Award Committee
Department of Biological and Health Sciences
Wilkes University PA, 18766 USA
jeffrey.stratford@wilkes.edu


Joseph Grinnell Student Research Award

This award supports beginning research efforts of Ph.D. graduate students in their first or second year of enrollment. One award of $2500 awards will be designated, in the memory of Joseph Grinnell, to support basic research in any aspect of avian biology. Projects that deal with conservation issues in avian biology should be directed to the Mewaldt-King Research Awards Committee of the Cooper Ornithological Society. Students may not submit a proposal to both award committees in the same year.

View previous years' Joseph Grinnell Award recipients and titles here>>.

Eligibility

This award is open to all graduate students that are members of the COS and originally enrolled in a Doctoral program AFTER August 2010.

2013 Proposal Deadline 

Proposals must be submitted electronically on or before 1 JANUARY 2013. Students lacking internet access may submit printed copies of their materials via mail (postmarked by 1 January 2013; see mailing address below) and should include a self-addressed envelope to facilitate notification of the committee's decision. Electronic copies submitted on floppy disks via postal service will NOT be accepted.

Proposal submission

To apply for the award, the student should submit one copy of:
  1. A short research proposal (no longer than 1800 words; see format below),
  2. His/her most current curriculum vitae, and
  3. A letter of support from his/her major faculty advisor. It is encouraged that materials be submitted as attachments via email directly to the chair of the committee 

Scott Stoleson, Ph.D.
USDA Forest Service
Northern Research Station
PO Box 267
Irvine, PA 16329
Email: sstoleson@fs.fed.us

Acceptable electronic file formats are Word, rich text format, and pdf files. Files in other formats will not be accepted. Files should be named using the student's last name and first initial (e.g., SmithC_proposal.pdf; SmithC_cv.pdf). Please include "Grinnell Award" in the subject heading of the email. The letter of support should be submitted separately by the applicant's major faculty advisor. The letter should address the qualifications of the applicant and the importance of the research project. This letter must also state the academic semester or quarter in which the applicant first entered the Ph.D. program. Otherwise the application will not be considered.

Format
  1. Abstract
  2. Introduction, including: (a) objectives with specific hypotheses to be tested (b) summary of any work completed to date (c) relation to present knowledge (d) significance
  3. Proposed methods, analyses, and timetable
  4. Literature cited. The complete proposal abstract and text, including literature cited, may not be longer than 1800 words (approximately 5 pages, double-spaced).

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