letter-gsra

Dear Recipient:

On behalf of the Botanical Society of America, let me congratulate you as a 2017 Graduate Student Research Award recipient, and thank you for participating in the program.

This year's applicants were extremely competitive and well prepared. There is some great research taking place amongst your peers—the quality and content of the 2017 applications were fantastic! Below I've provided a list of your fellow award recipients, followed by a request for your future support. Please read the message and get back to me with your thoughts.

To receive your award please carefully read the note below and respond accordingly.

The Botanical Society of America will be pleased to present you with a $500 check supporting your research. See the note below for directions on how to get your award check

** Please email me (wdahl@botany.org) a picture of yourself (high-resolution, 3+ megabyte) for use in the banquet slide-show at the upcoming conference in Fort Worth, Texas and possibly in the Plant Science Bulletin. I also strongly encourage you to attend the All Societies Celebration event on Wednesday evening of the BOTANY conference where you will be honored in the awards slide-show.

This year's award recipients are: 

2017 J. S. KARLING GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD Recipient
Ya  Min, Harvard University,  Advisor: Elena Kramer, For the Proposal: The Genetic Architecture of Stamen Whorl Variation in Aquilegia
2017 BSA GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD Recipients
Prabha  Amarasinghe, University of Florida,  Advisor: Nico Cellinese, For the Proposal: An integrated approach for understanding the drivers of diversification in Memecylon (Melastomataceae) 
Lauren  Audi, Northwestern University, Advisor: Nyree J C Zerega, For the Proposal: Genetic characterization of Caribbean Breadfruit: Advancing food security and local sustainable agriculture via germplasm conservation and collaboration with local growers. 
Nicholas  Bard, University of Colorado at Denver, Advisor: Leo P Bruederle, For the Proposal: The Diversity of Adaptation: A Population Genomic Study of Two Disjunct Conspecific Plant Taxa 
Amanda  Benoit, University of Tennessee, Advisor: Susan Kalisz, For the Proposal: Sit-and-wait predators as drivers of plant mating system evolution 
Brittany  Cavazos, Iowa State University, Advisor: Haldre S. Rogers, For the Proposal: The impact of frugivorous bird extinction on plant reproductive traits 
Alexa  DiNicola, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Advisor: Kenneth J. Sytsma, For the Proposal: Evolution of the Potentilla breweri complex: adaptation, hybridization, and radiation in the Great Basin sky islands 
Anna  Farrell, Northern Illinois University, Advisor: Nicholas A. Barber, For the Proposal: Functional Plant Trait Variation Along Disturbance Gradients in Restored Prairies 
Jessica  Hoch, Columbia University, Advisor: Matthew I. Palmer, For the Proposal: Drivers of microbial assemblages, plant-microbial mechanisms, and ecosystem services in urban green infrastructure 
Johanna  Jantzen, University of Florida, Advisor: Pamela S. Soltis, For the Proposal: Diversification and niche evolution in Neotropical Tibouchina s.s. (Melastomataceae) 
Melanie  Kazenel, University of Vermont, Advisor: Alison K Brody, For the Proposal: Assessing the consequences of bumblebee declines for native plants and pollinators 
Xiaoxian  Liu, University of Florida, Advisor: Doug Soltis. For the Proposal: Evolutionary impact of genome duplication on alternative splicing: Genome-wide assessment in a polyploid plant (Tragopogon) 
Chelsea  Pretz, University of Colorado at Boulder, Advisor: Stacey D. Smith, For the Proposal: Pollination biology and hybridization among Tomatillo (Physalis) Species in the Southwestern Region of North America 
Adam  Ramsey, University of Memphis, Advisor: Jennifer Mandel, For the Proposal: The Effects of Mitochondrial Heteroplasmy on Individual Fitness in Wild Carrot 
Jon  Richey, University of California at Davis, Advisor: Isabel Montanez, For the Proposal: Reconstructing Paleo-Plant Physiology and Vegetation-Climate Feedbacks of Late Paleozoic Seasonally-Dry Tropical Biomes 
Rosa  Rodriguez-Pena, Ohio State University, Advisor: Andrea D. Wolfe, For the Proposal: Investigating the agents driving diversification in Penstemon using high-throughput sequencing technology 
Annika  Smith, University of Florida, Advisor: Pamela S. Soltis, For the Proposal: Floral evolution & diversity in the nasturtiums (Tropaeolum) 
Elizabeth  Stunz, University of Texas at El Paso, Advisor: Michael L. Moody, For the Proposal: Landscape genetics of Arctic dwarf birch (Betula nana) in the context of gene flow and climate change 
Katherine  Wenzell,  Northwestern University, Advisor: Jeremie Fant, For the Proposal: Geographic variation in floral traits and pollinators in relation to population genetic  structure of two Castilleja species (Orobanchaceae) 
Colby  Witherup, Northwestern University, Advisor: Norm Wickett, For the Proposal: Investigating the evolutionary history of meiosis genes in genera with diploid and polyploid clades

As a recipient of a BSA Graduate Student Research Award (GSRA), including the J. S. Karling Award, you have become a member in a select group of young botanical researchers. The Society wishes you the very best in the years to come and looks forward to a long relationship as you move through your career. It's important to note, the BSA GSRA program is judged by past award recipients. At some time in the future you'll likely be asked to participate in this important role.

We'd also like you to consider the American Journal of Botany as your first choice when publishing your research findings. You may also want to consider publishing in Applications in Plant Sciences, our open-access journal of newly developed, innovative tools and protocols in all areas of the plant sciences, including genetics, structure, function, development, evolution, systematics, and ecology.  We have a proud tradition of supporting members in publishing research going back over 100 years.

We also know you have a wide range of options when publishing. If you choose to publish outside of the AJB, please consider Scientific Society publications as a meaningful way of supporting the scientific community. Always consider what publishers provide the community in return for the privilege of publishing your work.

Remember, Scientific Societies support young researchers and make opportunities like the GSRA and the many other BSA awards possible. As you move along in your career, we encourage you to publish in, and support Society based journals.

As you know, the BSA is working hard to promote plants and science as part of our mission. More and more, we are focusing on the middle/high school and undergraduate students as specific audiences for promoting BOTANY. We are also looking for new and meaningful ways for members to volunteer and engage in service opportunities. Please consider your options—we'd love to have you as active as possible in BSA activities.PlantingScience is a good place to start if you're not a mentor already.

In promoting BOTANY to younger potential scientists, we need to show them what you do.  As such, I'm asking you to take part in our program to show the world what you do as student members of the BSA. I'm requesting that you share your research experience by putting together a short "profile" for use on the BSA website. I'm also hoping it will help you market yourself as a participant in our efforts to improve science literacy. Your peers are adding profiles to the BSA website at present - http://botany.org/students_corner/Profiles/

What would be nice is for you to share a bit of your passion for science, botany, research and plants. Provide some images of you and your team in the lab, at conferences and particularly doing work in the field. I'll work with you to set up your profile on the BSA website. Have FUN with this!  I hope you see the benefit of this concept and take a wee bit of time pulling something together. You can place your profile in a Word document (pasting in images where you'd like them). I'll convert it to html and send you the link for final approval. Please send me your high-resolution images in separate emails.

NOTEResearch Awards over $600 paid to United States recipients are subject to 1099 IRS reporting, and the recipient may be taxed. If you have cumulative awards of over $600 during the 2016 year, please act on the information to follow. US awardees will need to complete an IRS W-9 form (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf) and return it to the BSA office.

To avoid filing taxes on the award,  US Awardees may wish to have the check deposited into a special university account (research account). If you follow this latter strategy, please state so in your email, and explicitly state to whom or to what entity the check should be made out to. Please check with your university and provide any forms or account numbers to the BSA Office so that the award payment will be placed in your designated university account. If you wish to have the check mailed directly to a university account, please provide the necessary information for tracking within the university system.

Non-United States award recipients are not subject to 1099 reporting, unless the Society is paying for services performed within the US.

TO RECEIVE YOUR CHECK --- Please confirm your Payee Name and mailing address with WANDA LOVAN in the BSA office. Your response and IRS W-9 form (if required, please let Wanda know if it is not) must be emailed directly to Wanda (wlovan@botany.org) at the BSA Business Office. Remember, you need to provide her with the name to whom the check is to be made out, the mailing address to which the check should be sent, and your IRS W-9 form (if required, please let Wanda know if it is not) to receive your award.

Congratulations on your Graduate Student Research Award!

All the very best! We look forward to seeing you in Fort Worth later this summer.

Bill

William Dahl
Executive Director
Botanical Society of America
BSA - www.botany.org 
American Journal of Botany - www.amjbot.org 
Botany Conference - www.BotanyConference.org 
PlantingScience - www.PlantingScience.org 

Mission: The Botanical Society of America exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.