The SSAR student poster awards honor Victor Hutchison for his extensive contributions to herpetology and the development of future herpetologists. The 8th annual SSAR Victor Hutchison Student Poster Awards were presented at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists & and Herpetologists in Rochester, NY, 11-15 July 2018. This year there were 35 eligible poster submissions. In recognition of outstanding student poster presentations at the annual meeting, an award was given in each of the following categories: Physiology & Morphology (9 presentations); Evolution, Genetics, & Systematics (5 presentations); Conservation & Management (6 presentations); and Ecology, Natural History, Distribution, & Behavior (15 presentations). All awardees received a check for US $200 and a book from the Taylor & Francis Group of CRC Press.
This year’s judges were: Betsie Rothermel, Chair (Archbold Biological Station), Russell Burke (Hofstra University), Gerardo Carfagno (Manhattan College), Brad Carlson (Wabash College), Andrew Durso (Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry), Marina Gerson (California State University, Stanislaus), Brittany Ousterhout (University of Arkansas), Josh Pierce (U.S.F.S. Southern Research Station), Jonathan Rose (U.S.G.S. Western Ecological Research Center), John Rowe (Alma College), Phillip Skipwith (University of California, Berkeley), and Peter Uetz (Virginia Commonwealth University)
The Winners – Physiology & Morphology: Rebecca Jasulevicz (Villanova University), “A Bolder Shoulder: Pectoral Girdle Morphology in Geckos.” Evolution, Genetics, & Systematics: Haley Moniz (University Nevada, Reno), “Costs of Adaptation: Tradeoffs in Organismal Performance of Tetrodotoxin-Resistant Garter Snakes (Thamnophis).” Conservation & Management: Chelsea Kross (University of Arkansas), “The Effects of Prescribed Fire on the Development of Larval Crawfish Frogs (Lithobates areolatus).” Ecology, Natural History, Distribution, & Behavior: A.Z. Andis (Yale University), “A New, Noninvasive Method of Batch-marking Amphibians Across Developmental Stages” and Honorable Mention to Thomas Nhu (undergraduate, California Polytechnic State University), “Inglorious Baskers: Comparative Behavior of Pacific Rattlesnakes in Coastal and Inland Populations.”
For more information about this award, see here.