Lifetime Achievement Award

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution Lifetime Achievement Award, Nominations due September 30. A background of gold star confetti and a gold trophy.

About

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made substantial contributions to the study of evolution through conceptual advances, impactful publications, and/or outreach/education. Individuals who have demonstrated outstanding mentorship of trainees, provided noteworthy service to the evolution community, and/or contributed to the diversity and inclusion of the field will also be recognized. The awardee will be presented at the 3rd Joint Congress of Evolutionary Biology in Montreal, Canada, July 26-30, 2024. Recipients of this award will be invited to submit an accompanying article to Evolution (primary research, review, insight or commentary, fast-tracked through review and made freely available) within two months of the conference. Published articles would highlight the award obtained. See examples here and here.

Nomination Instructions

Complete the form below with your name, the nominee’s name, and two short descriptions of the nominee’s contributions to the field and community. You will also be asked if you would be willing to provide a longer and more detailed nomination letter at a later date. SSE values the contributions of diverse researchers and encourages nominators to consider all potential mentors and colleagues. Self-nominations are welcome. Please submit your nomination by September 30, 2023.

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DEADLINE: September 30, 2023



Previous Recipients

2023

Dr. Sarah "Sally" Otto was selected for her countless important contributions to evolutionary biology as a researcher, mentor, educator, and activist. As an outstanding researcher, Dr. Otto’s empirical and theoretical work on the evolution of ploidy, sex, and recombination has moved the field forward. As a mentor and educator, she has provided rigorous and accessible training to the next generation of biologists. As a member of the scientific community and citizen of the world, she has served in leadership roles for several scientific societies (the American Society of Naturalists (ASN), the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, the American Genetic Association, and SSE), co-founded the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution, and directs the Liber Ero Fellowship Program. At every level, Dr. Otto has worked towards bettering the environment—scientifically and globally, individually and collaboratively. Her achievements have been recognized with a number of awards (including the Darwin-Wallace Medal from the Linnean Society, the Sewall Wright Award from ASN, the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant", National Academy of Sciences membership, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada), and we are delighted to honor her with the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2023. Watch Dr. Otto's award talk at Evolution 2023.

2022

Dr. Marcus Feldman is the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Biology, founder and director of the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, and co-director of the Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics at Stanford University. His innovative research has contributed to our understanding of the evolution of recombination and sex, human population genetics, niche construction, and evolutionary theory. With Dr. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Dr. Feldman also developed a new field termed cultural evolution, which studies how genetic and cultural variation can interact and affect one another. Over the course of his career, he has mentored numerous trainees, from high school students to postdocs, and was awarded the Allan V. Cox Medal for Fostering Undergraduate Research at Stanford and  the Stanford Biosciences Excellence in Mentoring and Service Award. In 1970, he co-founded the journal Theoretical Population Biology. He was also the Editor of The American Naturalist from 1984 to 1990. Dr. Feldman was named the Dan David Laureate in Evolution in 2011, and received the Motoo Kimura Prize in Human Evolution in 2016.

2021

Dr.Dr. Richard E. Lenski is the John Hannah Distinguished Professor of Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University (MSU). For more than 30 years, he has directed one of the most significant experiments in evolutionary biology, the E. coli Long Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE). He is one of the founding members of the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action at MSU, and today serves on its executive committee. Dr. Lenski has previously received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship, and has been elected to the American Academy of Microbiology, the European Molecular Biology Organization, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to his outstanding research contributions, he is known for being an exceptional mentor and role model for up and coming evolutionary biologists. He also served the community as President of SSE in 2013.

2020

Dr. Charlesworth in a garden.Dr. Deborah Charlesworth has been a key champion for the field of evolutionary biology. Her wide-ranging work has led to crucial insights into some of the most important outstanding evolutionary questions. She has also shown a tireless commitment to mentorship and encouragement of young scientists in evolutionary biology as an exemplary mentor and role model. Furthermore, she has served the evolution community as president of both the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. 


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