Botanical Society of America Awards 2009

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2009 awards provided by the Botanical Society of America. Here we provide recognition for outstanding efforts and contributions to the science of botany. We thank you for your support of these programs.

Botanical Society of America AWARDS
Botanical Society of America Merit Awards | Graduate Student Research Awards | Young Botanist Awards

Named AWARDS
Charles Edwin Bessey Teaching Award | Vernon I. Cheadle STAs | Triarch (Conant) "Botanical Images" STAs | John S. Karling & BSA Graduate Student Research Awards | Margaret Menzel Award | Grady L. Webster Award| Edgar T. Wherry Award

Sectional AWARDS
Student Travel Awards - Developmental & Structural | Ecological | Genetics | Pteridological Section & American Fern Society

Student Presentation, Poster and Research Awards -

Developmental & Structural Section Best Student Poster Award | Genetics Section Graduate Student Research Awards

The Botanical Society of America's MERIT AWARD

The Botanical Society of America Merit Award is the highest honor our Society bestows. Each year, the Merit Award Committee solicits nominations, evaluates candidates, and selects those to receive an award. Awardees are chosen based on their outstanding contributions to the mission of our scientific Society. The committee identifies recipients who have demonstrated excellence in basic research, education, public policy, or who have provided exceptional service to the professional botanical community, or who may have made contributions to a combination of these categories.

Based on these stringent criteria, the 2009 BSA Merit Award recipients are:

Dr. Norm Ellstrand, University of California, Riverside

The Botanical Society of America recognizes Dr. Norman C. Ellstrand with the Merit Award for his studies on plant population genetics; Ellstrand is one of the country's foremost experts on plant gene flow, the movement of genes from one organism to another. His research has involved the study of the possibility of escape of genes from genetically engineered crops into their wild relatives as well as the potential consequences of that escape.

Ellstrand's work has shown that crops can mate with their wild relatives at rates and distances much higher than previously supposed. He also has shown that the hybrids are often more fit than suspected, suggesting that once transgenes occur in hybrids they will spread readily. Ellstrand has warned that if transgenes confer an advantage to a weed, such as herbicide resistance, that weed will become more difficult to control.

His recent research has come to focus on the evolution of invasiveness in plants. He was among the first to suggest that invasive species could evolve from relatively innocuous progenitors. Ellstrand is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers and of the influential book Dangerous Liaisons? When Cultivated Plants Mate with Their Wild Relatives. Norman Ellstrand is richly deserving of the Merit Award, the highest award of the Botanical Society of America.

Dr. Alan Graham, Missouri Botanical Garden

The Botanical Society of America recognizes Dr. Alan K. Graham with the Merit Award for his lifetime of perceptive and careful study, by which Graham has laid the foundations for our "concepts about the origins and history of tropical vegetation" in the Western Hemisphere during the past 75 million years. Encouraging numerous students and colleagues for several decades, he has greatly advanced the field of vegetation history, the basis of our understanding the past migrations of plants and animals in North and South America, their evolution, and the way in which we should understand their present distributions. For his life's works, the Botanical Society of America awards Dr. Alan Graham with its highest award.

Dr. Gar Rothwell, Ohio University

The Botanical Society of America recognizes Professor Gar W. Rothwell with the Merit Award because he has demonstrated a level of professional commitment and accomplishment that we all strive to attain. He is a world-class scholar as judged by his peers, an effective and persuasive teacher as judged by his University and students, and an active and convincing advocate for the plant sciences as judged by the scientific community. As noted by one of his peers: Rothwell's "work with fossil ferns of many types…helped to more accurately define the three major radiations of true ferns and to sharpen the focus when molecular clade estimates and phylogenetic analyses based only on molecular data conflicted with each other." These individual, but highly intertwined activities in his career have been carried out at the highest level of professionalism and with a sense of purpose that is rarely matched. "Scholar, teacher, and extraordinary professional citizen" for the plant sciences underlines the distinguished career of Gar W. Rothwell, who so richly deserves the BSA's Merit Award.

Dr. Marsh Sundberg, Emporia State University

Professor Marshall D. Sundberg has demonstrated excellence in basic research, education, and exceptional service to the professional botanical community. His studies on the morphology of teosinte and its relatives are considered stellar contributions. Sundberg has made many valuable contributions to the Society, especially to the teaching section (vice-chair, program chair and workshop and section chair for many years) and as chair of the committee which revised and expanded the valuable 1995 booklet, Careers in Botany. This small booklet with large outreach for our society and for educators provided the resources to help students and professionals alike to understand the importance of a botanical education and how they could apply it to their life's work. Professor Sundberg has also chaired the Society's Education Committee, Membership and Appraisal Committee and assumed editorial responsibility for the Plant Science Bulletin. As the current editor of our Bulletin, established in the 1950's as a vehicle for disseminating information for our colleagues in the Plant Sciences, Marsh has surpassed this goal with his choice of subject matter, editorial insights and innovative reports. Marshall Sundberg is a notable public ambassador, speaker, researcher and advocate for plant biology at state, national, and international venues. Marshall Sundberg has earned the Botanical Society of America Merit Award, the highest honor our society can bestow on a colleague who has made outstanding contributions to botanical science and dedicated his career to our profession.

Charles Edwin Bessey Award (BSA in association with the Teaching Section and Education Committee)

Dr. Roger Hangarter, Indiana University - Dr. Hangarter is the Class of 1968 Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana University. Although he is foremost a botanical researcher who studies how plants use light and gravity to regulate their growth and development, he recognizes the synergistic relationship between research and teaching. He is highly committed to, and has been highly successful at, communicating botany to public audiences. His Plants-In-Motion website provides a large collection of his own time-lapse plant movies and educational materials for teachers and students worldwide. He also develops visually compelling educational projects.

His work is exhibited in US science museums as well as art galleries. Using time-lapse photography, Dr. Hangarter has created movies allowing us to see that plants are living organisms capable of some extraordinary things. His time-lapse movies provide a unique opportunity to demonstrate the dynamics of plant life. Professor Hangarter has shared his vision with the BSA at its annual meetings on several occasions—- including his most memorable delivery of the 2006 Educational Forum and Outreach plenary address entitled "Communicating an Awareness of Plants through Science and Art" at the Chico, CA meeting. In short, Dr. Roger P. Hangarter's significant and ever-evolving body of botany education work represents teaching innovation, documented national impact, attention to scientific quality, and a quest for public enlightenment.

Darbaker Prize

The Darbaker Prize in Phycology is given each year in memory of Dr. Leasure K. Darbaker. It is presented to a resident of North America for meritorious work in the study of microscopic algae based on papers published in English by the nominee during the last two full calendar years. This year The Darbaker Award for meritorious work on microscopic algae is presented to:

Dr. Patrick Keeling, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Evolutionary Biology Program, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Dr. Keeling’s research has contributed in a substantial and meaningful way in the area of organelle evolution, genetransfer, and genome evolution, including plastid evolution, in the microalgae of the Chromalveolates and Ulvophyceae.

Vernon I. Cheadle Student Travel Awards (BSA in association with the Developmental and Structural Section)

This award was named in honor of the memory and work of Dr. Vernon I. Cheadle.

Madelaine Bartlett - University of California, Berkeley, CA - Advisor, Dr. Chelsea Specht - Botany 2009 presentation: "CYCLOIDEA-like genes and the evolution of floral symmetry in the Zingiberales."

Brett A. Bergman - California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA - Advisor, Dr. Frank W. Ewers - Botany 2009 presentation: "Effect of Leaf Nodes on the Mechanical Properties of Stems."

Nathan Derieg - University of California, Santa Barbara, CA - Advisor, Dr. Scott Hodges - Botany 2009 presentation: "Molecular basis of an adaptive trait: floral anthocyanin production in Aquilegia."

Julia Nowak - University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC - Advisor, Dr. Quentin Cronk - Botany 2009 presentation: "Morphological oddity of the Krishna Fig."

Triarch "Botanical Images" Student Travel Awards

This award provides acknowledgement and travel support to BSA meetings for outstanding student work in the area of creating botanical digital images.

Mauricio Diazgranados, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO - Advisor, Dr. Janet C. Barber - First Place - $500 Botany 2009 Student Travel Award

Julia Nowak, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC - Advisor, Dr. Quentin Cronk - Second Place - $250 Botany 2009 Student Travel Award

James Cohen, Cornell University, NY - Advisor, Dr. Joseph Williams - Third Place - $150 Botany 2009 Student Travel Award

Margaret Menzel Award (Genetics Section)

The Margaret Menzel Award is presented by the Genetics Section for the outstanding paper presented in the contributed papers sessions of the annual meetings.

This year’s award goes to J. Chris Pires, University of Missouri, for the paper “Homoeologous chromosome pairing and rearrangements adientified in allopolyploid Brassica napus by integrated BAC-FISH karyotype of diploid Brassica." Co-author was Zhiyong Xiong.

Emanuel D. Rudolph Award (Historical Section)

The Emanuel D. Rudolph Award is given by the Historical Section of the BSA for the best student presentation/poster of a historical nature at the annual meetings. 

This year’s award goes to Mauricio Bonifacino, Universidad De La República, Montevideo, Uruguay, for his presentation: “Cassini the 5th, Master of Compositae: insight into his life and work.” Co-authors: Harold Robinson, Vicki A. Funk, Walter Lack, Gerhard Wagenitz, Christian Feuillet and Nicholas Hind.

THE 2009 GRADY L. WEBSTER AWARD

This award was established in 2006 by Dr. Barbara D. Webster, Grady’s wife, and Dr. Susan V. Webster, his daughter, to honor the life and work of Dr. Grady L. Webster. The American Society of Plant Taxonomists and the Botanical Society of America are pleased to join together in honoring Grady Webster.

Gregory J. Jordan, Peter H. Weston, Raymond J. Carpenter, Rebecca A. Dillon and Timothy J. Brodribb
The Evolutionary relationships of sunken, covered, and encrypted stomata to dry habitats in Proteaceae
American Journal of Botany, 2008 95:521-530

Edgar T. Wherry Award (Pteridological Section and the American Fern Society)

The Edgar T. Wherry Award is given for the best paper presented during the contributed papers session of the Pteridological Section. This award is in honor of Dr. Wherry’s many contributions to the floristics and patterns of evolution in ferns.

This year’s award goes to Michael Sundue, The New York Botanical Garden’s Institute for Systematic Botany, for his paper entitled “Silica bodies and their systematic implications in the Pteridaceae."

The BSA Graduate Student Research Award including the J. S. Karling Award

The BSA Graduate Student Research Awards support graduate student research and are made on the basis of research proposals and letters of recommendations. Withing the award group is the Karling Graduate Student Research Award. This award was instituted by the Society in 1997 with funds derived through a generous gift from the estate of the eminent mycologist, John Sidney Karling (1897-1994), and supports and promotes graduate student research in the botanical sciences. The 2008 award recipients are:

J. S. Karling Graduate Student Research Award

Andrew B. Schwendemann, University of Kansas, KS - Advisor, Dr. Thomas N. Taylor, Deep time plant physiology and its implications for climate change

BSA Graduate Student Research Awards

Madelaine Bartlett, University of California, Berkeley, CA - Advisor, Dr. Chelsea D. Specht, Evolution of floral symmetry in the petaloid monocot order Zingiberales

Jessica M. Budke, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT - Advisor, Dr. Cynthia Jones, Examining the matrotrophic calyptra and its role in moss sporophyte development using Funaria hygrometrica L. (Bryophyta).

Ben R. Grady, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI - Advisor, Dr. Kenneth J. Sytsma, Systematics and Edaphic Endemism in Eriogonum (Polygonaceae): An Integrative Approach

Alison Hale, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, - Advisor, Dr. Susan Kalisz, Testing the stability of obligate mutualisms using the plant-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi interaction as a model system

Robert G. Laport, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY - Advisor. Dr. Justin Ramsey, Reproductive Isolation in the North American Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata, Zygophyllaceae)

Maribeth Latvis, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL - Advisor, Drs. Pamela S. & Douglas E. Soltis, Tracking Migration, Diversification, and Gene Losses Across North and South America in Agalinis (Orobanchaceae)

Patricia Lu-Irving, University of Washington, Seattle, WA - Advisors, Dr. Richard G. Olmstead, How do shifts in dispersal strategy affect the distribution and diversification of species? An example from the Lantana-Lippia complex (Verbenaceae).

Nicole E. Miller, Washington University, St. Louis, MO - Advisor, Dr. Peter Hoch, Stress-adaptation and competition for pollinators: Implications for endemism

Alexandra Sasha Rohde, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, - Advisor, Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman, Temperature and Water Effects on Phenology and Opportunity for Positive Assortative Mating in Plantago

Jane E. Ogilvie, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, - Advisor, Dr. James Thomson, Pollination Facilitation Subalpine in Gentians

Robert N. Schaeffer, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, - Advisor, Dr. Rebecca Irwin, Direct and indirect effects of nectar microbial communities on pollinator behavior and plant fitness

Developmental & Structural Section Student Travel Awards

Tyson Kerr, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia - Botany 2009 presentation: "Comparative MADS-box gene expression in Physocarpus opulifolius (Rosaceae)." Co-author: Rodger C. Evans

Jacob Landis, University of Kansas, Lawrance, KS - Botany 2009 presentation: "Determining the genetic basis for petal-like sepals in a close relative of snapdragon." Co-authors: Laryssa Baldridge and Lena Hileman

Natalia Pabon Mora, Graduate Center CUNY/ New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY - Botany 2009 presentation: "Before the gene duplication event: addressing functional evolution of the APETALA1/FRUITFULL gene lineage in non-core eudicots." Co-author: Amy Litt

Developmental & Structural Section Best Student Poster Award

Kerri Mocko, Miami University, for his poster, “Contrasting leaf shapes of Pelargonium species vary in extent of solar tracking.” Co-authors: Cynthia Jones and Adrienne Nicotra

Ecology Section Student Travel Awards

Kelsey L. Dunnell, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND - Advisor, Dr. Steven E. Travers - Botany 2009 presentation: "Early flowering of plants in the Northern Great Plains linked to increasing spring temperatures over 100 years."

Amanda M. Kenney , University of Texas, Austin, TX- Advisor, Dr. Thomas E. Juenger - Botany 2009 presentation: "Selection on water-use efficiency (WUE) in Ipomopsis aggregata - an analysis of the functional relationships among WUE, other ecological traits, and fitness."

Genetics Section Graduate Student Research Awards

The 2009 recipients of the Genetics Section Graduate Student Research Awards, each of which provides $500 for research funds and an additional $500 for attendance at a future BSA meeting, are:
Stein V. Servick, Department of Botany, University of Florida (PhD student)

Ashley Kuenzi, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati (MS Student)

Genetics Section Student Travel Awards

Susann Wicke, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria - Advisor, Dr. Dietmar Quandt & Dr. Gerald Schneeweiss - Botany 2009 presentation: "From the exception to the rule: the re-arrangement(s) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA in land plants.."

Pteridological Section & American Fern Society Student Travel Awards

Marian M. Chau, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI – Dr. Thomas Ranker – Botany 2009 presentation: Restoration genetics of the endangered fern Marsilea villosa: variation among populations on two Hawaiian islands.

Amanda Grusz, Duke University, Durham, NC – Dr. Kathleen Pryer – Botany 2009 presentation: A Cheilanthes by any other name: Evolutionary complexity in the New World myriopterid clade (Pteridaceae).

Erin Sigel, Duke University, Durham, NC – Dr. Kathleen Pryer – Botany 2009 presentation: To have or have not: using farina to delineate major clades within the false cloak ferns (Argyrochosma).

Alejandra Vasco, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY – Dr. Robbin Moran – Botany 2009 presentation: Systematics and phylogeny of Elaphoglossum section Lepidoglossum H. Christ (Drypoteridaceae): search for natural groups.

The BSA Young Botanist Awards

The purpose of these awards are to offer individual recognition to outstanding graduating seniors in the plant sciences and to encourage their participation in the Botanical Society of America. The 2009 "Certificate of Special Achievement" award recipients are:

Andre Calaminus, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL - Advisor, Dr. Pamela S. Soltis

Julia I. Chapman, Ohio University, Athens, OH - Advisor, Dr. Phil Cantino

Anna Dennis, Willamette University, Salem, OR - Advisor, Dr. Dr. Susan R. Kephart

Brinton Domangue, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA - Advisor, Dr. Conley K. McMullen

David Farler, Miami University, Oxford, OH - Advisor, Dr. John Z. Kiss

Karl Gorzelnik, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA - Advisor, Dr. Conley K. McMullen

Annie Hanks, Humboldt University, Eureka, Ca - Advisor, Dr. Frank J. Shaughnessy

Lucas T. Henderson, Humboldt University, Eureka, Ca - Advisor, Dr. Alexandru M. F. Tomescu

Richard LaMar Hederstrom, Connecticut College - Advisor, T. Page Owen, Jr.

Jane A. Hopkins, Miami University, Oxford, OH - Advisor, Dr. John Z. Kiss

Amelia Huerta, Miami University, Oxford, OH - Advisor, Dr. John Z. Kiss

Emily Johnston, Ohio University, Athens, OH - Advisor, Dr. Harvey E. Ballard, Jr.

William John Karis, Connecticut College - Advisor, T. Page Owen, Jr.

Roxanna Khadem, University of California, Los Angeles, CA - Advisor, Dr. Ann M. Hirsch

Ashley Klymiuk, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada - Advisor, Dr. Ruth A. Stockey

Adam Kotaich, Willamette University, Salem, OR - Advisor, Dr. Susan R. Kephart

Meagan Lebeau, SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY - Advisor, Dr. Chris Martine

Ralph McNeilage, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN - Advisor, Dr. Elias J. Fernandez

Megan Pallo, University of Missouri, Columbia. MO - Advisor, Dr. J. Chris Pires

Adel Peña, Florida International University, Miami, FL - Advisor, Dr. Suzanne Koptur

Valinn Joseph Vincent Ranelli, Connecticut College - Advisor, T. Page Owen, Jr.

Deb Rojas, California State University, Chico, CA - Advisor, Dr. Christopher T. Ivey

Laura Schmidt, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI - Advisor, Dr. Anna K. Monfils

Allison Schwartz, University of California, Los Angeles, CA - Advisor, Dr. Ann M. Hirsch

Michael Schwieterman, Miami University, Oxford, OH - Advisor, Dr. John Z. Kiss

Angela Schultz, University of Colorado, Denver, CO - Advisor, Dr. Laurel Hartley

Michael R. Sekor, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY - Advisor, Dr. Mark A. Schlessman

Molly Sultany, Willamette University, Salem, OR - Advisor, Dr. Susan R. Kephart

Jennifer VanWyk, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY - Advisor, Dr. Mark A. Schlessman