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Outstanding Paper Award

2026 Call for Nominations for the Outstanding Paper Award! 

We are delighted to begin accepting nominations for the outstanding student paper award. All current graduate students and recent Ph.D. recipients (within two years of receiving the Ph.D.) are eligible for this award. Students can self-nominate or be nominated by a mentor. This is an excellent opportunity to honor and showcase the scientific contributions of our student members!

Nominations must meet the following requirements:

  1. The paper must result from research conducted as a graduate student.
  2. The paper must be in the area of disease ecology.
  3. The paper must be published in a peer-reviewed journal between January 2025 and the nomination date.
  4. The nominee must be the first author of the paper.
  5. The nominee must be a graduate student or have received their Ph.D. within two years of the nomination deadline.
  6. The nominee must be a current member of the ESA Disease Ecology section.

Applications will be reviewed by the Awards Committee appointed by the Officers of the Disease Ecology Section. Papers will be judged based on their contribution to the field, including originality, study design, methods and analysis, and impact.

A complete nomination packet should include:

  • A copy of the paper
  • A brief description of the paper’s significance to the field of Disease Ecology (<300 words)
  • A brief description of the student’s contribution to the paper (<100 words). This is especially important for papers with many coauthors.

Applications should be submitted electronically as pdf files. Please send files to our section’s Chair, Cat Searle (searlec@purdue.edu), with the subject line “ESA Disease Ecology Best Paper Award – [Applicant Last Name]”.

NOMINATION DEADLINE: June 20, 2026.

The winner will be notified prior to the annual meeting and publicly announced during the Disease Ecology Section Mixer at the ESA Meeting.