DIVERSITY AT SSE/SSB 2008 is on!

Please read the application material below to learn more. We are looking for talented and diverse undergraduates to send to the Evolution meetings in June in Minneapolis.

For the sixth consecutive year, the Undergraduate Diversity at SSE/SSB program, funded originally by a the Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology (UMEB) program at NSF, will take place again at the 2008 meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) in Minneapolis, MN.  This year we have teamed up with staff at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, NC, to send up to 25 undergraduates to the meetings to present posters and recieve mentoring from graduate students, postdocs and faculty in evolutionary biology. Read some comments from participants in previous years.

The deadline for applications this year is May 1, 2008.  Applications will consist of a title, author line and abstract of the poster to be presented by the undergraduate; a one page statement of academic interests and career goals and of how attending the Evolution meetings will help meet these goals; and one letter of recommendation from the undergraduate's research advisor.  The letter should indicate how inclusion of the student will increase diversity of the group participants and whether or not the student plans to attend graduate school or medical school.  It is essential that the students contact information (both e-mail and mailing address) be included in the materials. All materials should be submitted as pdf files and emailed to Alison Pirie at apirie@oeb.harvard.edu. 

We can only accept applications from students who are US citizens or permanent residents. Applications will be accepted only from students registered or very recently graduated from U.S. institutions, including Puerto Rico (i.e., no later than having finished classes during the winter or spring semesters before the meeting) and traveling to the meeting from within the US.  Students demonstrating a need for funds to attend SSE/SSB will be given preference, and will be selected so that as a group, they will maximize cultural diversity among undergraduates at the meetings.

Contact one of the program organizers for more information:

Scott V. Edwards (sedwards@fas.harvard.edu)

Richard Kliman (rmkliman@cedarcrest.edu)

at NESCent:

Brian Wiegmann (brian_wiegmann@ncsu.edu)
Jory Weintraub (jory@nescent.org)

Selection criteria

a) Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents.

b) As a group, attending students must increase cultural diversity among undergraduates at Evolution meetings.

c) Students demonstrating a need for student funds to attend SSE will be given preference.  Those students without access to travel funds from their institutions or their research advisor’s research budget will be chosen over those that have significant support.

d) Students must be registered undergraduates or very recent graduates (i.e., having finished classes during the winter or spring quarters (semesters) before the meeting).

e) Students preparing to attend graduate school in ecology or evolutionary biology or related fields will be given priority over students planning to attend medical school.

f) All students will be encouraged to attend the entire meeting to maximize their participation and to minimize travel costs by spanning a Saturday overnight stay.  Students selected for the award will make travel arrangements through a designated travel agent working with this program, and will be expected to attend the closing banquet on Tuesday June 24.

To read some of the comments of past participants in the program, click here.

For a pdf of our most recent request to NSF to support this program, click here.