ATBC 2022 Student and Early Career Awards

Abstract

The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) recognizes the exceptional research of students and early career scientists through awards presented at Annual Meetings of the ATBC. The ATBC is pleased to announce the 2022 winners of these awards, which were presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the ATBC in Cartagena, Colombia, “Conserving Tropical Biodiversity and Achieving Socio-Ecological Resilience in the Anthropocene: Opportunities and Challenges.” The Luis F. Bacardi Award for Advances in Tropical Conservation is awarded to the best conservation talk presented during the ATBC Annual Conference by an early-career scientist (i.e., a researcher who received their Ph.D. no more than 5 years before the meeting date). This award was established in 2005 with an endowment from the Lubee Bat Conservancy, an international non-profit organization based in Gainesville, Florida, USA. The Lubee Bat Conservancy was founded in 1989 by the late Luis F. Bacardi and is dedicated to protecting biological diversity through the conservation of fruit- and nectar-feeding bats. At the 2022 ATBC Annual Meeting, Katharine Thompson, a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Pennsylvania State University (USA) was awarded the Luis F. Bacardi Award for her presentation entitled “From lemurs to lobsters: Land to sea links in a coastal socio-ecological system in western Madagascar.” The Alwyn Gentry Presentation Awards were established to recognize outstanding oral and poster presentations given by students at the ATBC Annual Conference. Alwyn Gentry (1945–1993) was a prominent botanist who made exceptional contributions to the study of the diversity and conservation of tropical plants and to the training of students from the Americas. These awards are in remembrance and recognition of the contributions of this singular scientist, colleague, supportive mentor, and friend. At the 2022 ATBC Annual Meeting, Rodrigo Muñoz, Ph.D. candidate from Wageningen University and Research (The Netherlands), was awarded the Alwyn Gentry Award for the Best Oral Presentation for his presentation entitled “Climatic drivers of productivity in tropical secondary forests.” Lim Qi Luan, a Ph.D. candidate from the Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University (Japan) was awarded the Alwyn Gentry Award for the Best Poster for her presentation entitled “Historical effective population size of the endangered Malayan tapir: implications for conservation.” The New Phytologist Trust graciously funds an annual award to recognize achievement in Plant Biology by a student author presenting a poster at the ATBC Annual Meeting. At the 2022 Annual Meeting, the New Phytologist Poster Prize in Plant Biology was awarded to Siddarth Machado, a Ph.D. candidate from the School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatics Sciences at University of Florida (USA), for his poster entitled “Resilience to drought in a humid tropical Dipterocarp forest, India.” The ATBC is honored by all who chose to present their work at the 2022 ATBC Annual Meeting and congratulates these recipients for their outstanding contributions to tropical biology and conservation. The ATBC is also honored to be able to award the Navjot Sodhi Conservation Research Award each year to a student or recent graduate from a developing country conducting research in tropical conservation biology. This award is in remembrance and recognition of the contributions of our dear colleague and friend Navjot Sodhi, who inspired many students and colleagues with his passion for research and the conservation of tropical biodiversity. Armando Das, Director of Proyecto Tapir Nicaragua and a Ph.D. candidate from Michigan State University (USA), was awarded the 2022 Navjot Sodhi Conservation Research Award for their project entitled “Establishing the baseline to protect and manage critically endangered mammals in one of the last strongholds for tropical biodiversity in southeast Nicaragua.” The ATBC promotes the professional development of students working in the areas of tropical biology and conservation by awarding seed grants to support graduate student research. The ATBC is pleased to announce the 2022 winners of the Seed Grants, who are the following: We thank the Grants and Awards Committee of the ATBC for volunteering their time to review Seed Grant and Navjot Sodhi Conservation Research Award applications. We also thank all who volunteered to evaluate oral and poster presentations during the ATBC 2022 Annual Meeting. The New Phytologist award was judged by the representatives from the journal.