George R. Cooley award for best contributed paper in plant systematics. The Cooley Award is given for the best paper in systematics given at the annual meeting by a botanist in the early stages of his/her career. Awards are made to members of ASPT who are graduate students or within 5 years of their post-doctoral careers. The Cooley Award is given for work judged to be substantially complete, synthetic and original. First authorship required; graduate students or those within 5 years of finishing their Ph.D. are eligible; must be a member of ASPT at time of abstract submission; only one paper judged per candidate.

Award Recipients:

2014 - Ryan Folk of the Ohio State University
For the talk entitled ““Sky islands” in the eastern US? – Strong phylogeographic structure in the Heuchera parviflora group (Saxifragaceae)". Co-author: John Freudenstein

2013 - Ricardo Kriebel of the New York Botanical Garden
For the talk entitled “Phylogenetic study of Conostegia demonstrates the utility of anatomical and continuous characters in the sytematics of the Melastomataceae". Co-author: Fabian Michelangeli

2012 - Mauricio Diazgranados of Saint Louis University & Missouri Botanical Garden
For the talk entitled “Geography shapes the phylogeny of frailejones (Espeletiinae Cuatrec., Asteraceae): a remarkable example of recent rapid radiation in sky islands". Co-author: Janet Barber

2011 - Erin Tripp of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
For the talk entitled “Physacanthus (Acanthaceae): a heteroplasmic, intergeneric, interlineage hybrid?". Co-authors: Lucinda Mcdade, Siti Fatimah Isa and Iain Darbyshire

2010 - Craig F. Barrett, Ohio State University
For the talk entitled “Species delimitation, phylogeography, and identification of evolutionarily significant units in a rare but widespread North American mycoheterotrophic orchid, Corallorhiza striata (Orchidaceae: Epidendroideae)". Co-author: John Freudenstein

2008 - Brian Knaus, Oregon State University
For his talk entitled “A fistful of Astragalus : incipient speciation in the American West?". Co-authors were Aaron Liston and RC Cronn

2007 - Ann Willyard, University of South Dakota
For her talk entitled “Integrating phylogenetic and population genetic approaches: A case study using Pinus washoensis". Co-authors were Aaron Liston and RC Cronn

2005 - Christopher Martine, University of Connecticut
For his talk entitled “The evolution and natural history of dioecy in Australian spiny Solanum (Solanaceae)". Co-authors were Gregory J. Anderson, Donald H. Les and David E. Symon

1991
Anne Bruneau
Received the Award for her paper co-authored with Jeffrey Doyle on "Phylogenetic relationships in Erithrina (Leguminosae: Phaseolae),"

Andrew W. Douglas
Received his Award for his paper co-authored with Shirley Tucker entitled "The utility of floral ontogenetic analysis in phylogenetic reconstructions".

1990 - Loren H. Rieseberg, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
For his paper, co-authored with Stephen M. Beckstrom-Sternberg, Aaron Liston, and Dulce Arias, "Phylogenetic and systematic inferences from chloroplast DNA, nuclear ribosomal DNA, and isozyme variation in Helianthus section Helianthus (Asteraceae)."

1989 - Elizabeth A. Kellogg
For her paper entitled, "Phylogeny of the Triticeae (Poaceae): Molecular and morphological data."