Buell and Braun Award

About the Awards

If you are a student (undergraduate or graduate) who is the presenting author of a contributed talk or poster, and who is the sole or lead author of the talk or poster, you are eligible to be considered. Presentation formats other than contributed are not eligible. Presentations will be judged on significance of ideas, creativity, quality of methodology, validity of conclusions drawn from results, and clarity of presentation. The students selected for these awards will be announced in a press release in Spring 2023. The students will receive a travel award, as well as a plaque and check for $500 at the following ESA Annual Meeting.  While all students are encouraged to apply, winning presentations typically describe fully completed projects. . The deadline to apply is Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time (2:00 pm Pacific Time). In order to be eligible, you must first submit an abstract through the contributed abstract form by the March 3rd deadline.

Outstanding Student Talk – Murray F. Buell Award for Excellence in Ecology

Murray F. Buell had a long and distinguished record of service and accomplishment in the Ecological Society of America. Among other things, he ascribed great importance to the participation of students in meetings and to excellence in the presentation of papers. To honor his selfless dedication to the younger generation of ecologists, the Murray F. Buell Award is given to a student for the outstanding oral paper presented at the ESA Annual Meeting.

Outstanding Student Poster – Lucy Braun Award for Excellence in Ecology

Lucy Braun, an eminent plant ecologist and one of the charter members of the Society, studied and mapped the deciduous forest regions of eastern North America and described them in her classic book The Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America. To honor her, the E. Lucy Braun Award is given to a student for the outstanding poster presentation at the ESA Annual Meeting.

What to Expect

ESA is closely monitoring the developing situation with COVID-19 and the omicron variant. We continue to plan for an in-person meeting in Montréal. All speakers with accepted abstracts should plan to attend in person. If the meeting format changes, we will notify all session organizers and speakers by email.  If an in-person meeting is not possible, the meeting will be virtual, with all sessions held online. Additional guidance will be provided by email to how the process will work if the meeting is all virtual.

How to Apply

The deadline to apply is Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time (2:00 pm Pacific Time).

Application Components

• Student name, email address, affiliation, gender, ethnicity
• Presentation type (contributed talk or contributed poster)
• Student status: undergraduate, graduate, recent doctorate (within the past 9 months)
• Are you sole or lead author?
• Does the research presented describe the results of a fully completed project?
• Abstract ID # (from your completed abstract submission)
• Essay: In 250 words or less, explain 1) how your results advance the field of ecology, 2) how your study takes a creative approach to the problem, and 3) the potential impacts of your research.
• Abstract: Copy and paste your abstract title, author list, and body text

For any questions, please contact awards@esa.org.