In 2022, the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) was endowed with a large gift from the Gans Collections and Charitable Fund to provide funding for travel to herpetological meetings for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and exceptional undergraduates. The Gans Fund continues its extraordinary work promoting meeting attendance and is particularly interested in supporting international student researchers from across the globe. To that end, the SSAR is soliciting applications to attend one of two meetings in 2024 as Carl Gans Fellows: the SSAR meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in June 2024 and the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (JMIH) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. Students and post-docs should be members of a herpetological JMIH society working on any type of herpetological research. Twenty awards will be granted in this cycle ($800 per fellow for U.S./Canadian researchers and $1500 for researchers from other countries). Priority will be given to those in greatest need (for whom the award makes the difference between attendance or lack of attendance) and those from historically underrepresented groups based on gender, race, country of origin, or other factors.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Current student or post-doc engaging in herpetological research
- Member of SSAR, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH), or Herpetologists’ League (HL)
- Presenter at the SSAR meeting in Ann Arbor or the JMIH in Pittsburgh in 2024
Application Instructions:
Students and post-docs should fill out the Google Form (https://forms.gle/6Bkm8bsT2dDXEZnv7) with all information completed by 20 February 2024. Required information includes:
- Name
- Academic rank (undergraduate, graduate, post-doc)
- Institution and city/state/country of institution
- Membership of which herpetological society/societies
- Signed statement of advisor (template provided)
- Abstract of the research you will present. In the spirit of the herpetological research of Carl Gans, which was both diverse and synthetic, and which he disseminated to a wide range of audiences, from the general public to professional academics, the abstract should include a brief statement that places the research in the broader context of the discipline. (500 word maximum)
- Statement of need of funds to attend the meeting
- *Optional* Statement of whether the applicant is a member of a historically underrepresented group based on gender, race, country of origin, or other factor