George B. and Mary S. Rabb Undergraduate Poster Award
The SSAR’s George B. Rabb Undergraduate Poster Award is sponsored by the George and Mary Rabb Foundation. It honors Mary Rabb who achieved much in the realm of amphibian research and conservation of all species, and George Rabb, who was a former Director of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and a highly respected leader of many global wildlife conservation initiatives. George was excellent at identifying students with strong potential in conservation and conservation-related research and informally mentoring them to maximize their impact on the field. 2025 marked the 7th year of this competition. Due to the generous donation from the George and Mary Rabb Foundation, two awards were given and a travel award was given to a student randomly selected from among the competitors. The poster winners received a check for US $250 and a book. We thank Chuck Crumly for book donations this year. The travel award is $500. To learn more about this award, visit: https://ssarherps.org/ssar-awards/georgerabbaward/.
This year’s judges were John Abramyan (University of Michigan-Dearborn) and Tom Radomski (Washington University in St. Louis).
The 2025 winners of the Rabb Undergraduate Poster Award are:
Mason Polencheck (University of Minnesota), “Land-Use Effects on the Skin Microbiome of the Common Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus)”
Mikayla-Anne Woodring (Moravian University), “Morphological Changes in Xenopus laevis Tadpoles’ Guts When Exposed to Polyethylene Microplastics in Water”
The travel award winner is Leah Stimpson.