Victor Hutchison Graduate Poster Award
The SSAR Graduate Student Poster Awards honor Victor Hutchison for his extensive contributions to herpetology and the development of future herpetologists. For the second year in a row, we held the 11th annual SSAR Victor Hutchison Student Poster competition in a novel virtual format. In 2021 we used a new platform of ePosters on 26 July. Nine students competed. This year we gave a total of two awards across categories, owing to the relatively small number of participants. The awardees received a check for US $250.
This year’s judges were Dominic DeSantis (Georgia College), Christopher Schalk (Stephen F. Austin State University), and Denita Weeks (Colorado Mesa University)
The 2021 winners of the Hutchison Graduate Poster Award are:
For Conservation, Management, Ecology, Natural History, Distribution and Behavior:
Rachel Alenius-Thalhauber (Texas Christian University), “Differential diets, growth rates, and survival of captive-bred hatchling Texas horned lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum) reintroduced at two locations in central Texas”
Click here to view a PDF of Rachel’s poster.
For Evolution, Genetics, Systematics, Physiology and Morphology:
Kyle Emerson (Duquesne University), “The effects of microbial environment and temperature on neurodevelopment in larval amphibians”
Click here to view a PDF of Kyle’s poster.
George B. Rabb Undergraduate Poster Award
SSAR’s George B. Rabb Undergraduate Poster Award is sponsored by Zoo Atlanta and honors our colleague George Rabb (1930-2017), former Director of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, IL, and highly respected advocate and spokesman for wildlife conservation. 2021 marked the 3rd year of this competition, which was held, like 2020, in a novel virtual format owing to the coronavirus pandemic. This competition used the ePosters platform, and five students competed on 26 July 2021. The winner received a check for US $250.
This year’s judges were:
Allyson Fenwick, Chair (University of Central Oklahoma) and Ethan Royal (University of Arkansas)
The 2021 winner of the George B. Rabb Undergraduate Poster Award is:
Yucheol Shin (Nanjing Forestry University), “Distribution modeling of Onychodactylus koreanus predicts drastic decrease of suitable habitats in response to climate change”
Click here to view a PDF of Yucheol’s poster.