The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) are the premier professional societies in the US for discussion and dissemination of ideas relating to evolution. This award will provide travel, registration, and lodging costs for approximately 15 undergraduates from groups underrepresented in science for the annual meetings of these societies for the years 2008 - 2011.
This award is a continuation of a very successful program that began with the 2001 meetings and has raised awareness and enthusiasm for the need to broaden the undergraduate base at the meetings. During the meetings the undergraduates will be mentored by graduate student and faculty mentors, who will help the undergraduate network at the meetings, help demystify talks for the undergraduates, and generally make the students feel more welcome at the meetings. There will also be an official mentoring session for undergraduates, consisting of a seminar that will help encourage the students to prepare for careers and/or graduate school in evolutionary and environmental biology. These activities will be supplemented by social activities not covered by this grant, as well as further efforts on the part of both societies for encouraging undergraduate participation, such as reduced registration fees, daily fees for attendance by students at the host site, and an undergraduate poster session. These activities will help increase participation by underrepresented groups at the Evolution meetings, and ultimately should have a positive effect on participation in evolutionary biology nationally.
This award supported the travel of 15-25 diverse undergraduates annually from across the country to the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE). Each year this Society meets with the Society for Systematic Biologists and the American Society of Naturalists, two additioanl Societies with which this award is affiliated. In addition the award allowed the students to present results of their research at the meeting, and to receive mentoring and career advice from graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professionals in the field. The project is an extension of two earlier awards from NSF and the total number of students participating in the Undergraduate Diversity program through these grants has now exceeded 200. In all four years of this award the travel was coordinated with and supplemented by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). Through this and the previous grants, we aim to diversify the field of evolutionary biology and to expose students to the diverse career paths available to those with training and research experience in evolutionary biology. The associated image shows the students, organizers and mentors at the 2009 meeting of the SSE at the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID. Evolutionary biology is an important area of research for many endeavors in fields such as medicine, agriculture, infectious disease and environmental science. Whereas many professional science fields such as biomedicine have recruited a reasonably diverse workforce in the US, evolutionary biology and related fields lag behind, with a dearth of students from underrepresented groups. This project is meant to rectify this skew, while open to all students, the program aims to support a diverse cohort of students travelling to the meetings each year. The students arrive at each meeting in time for the opening reception and for the annual Stephen Jay Gould award presentation, which is given by a prominent scientist or journalist in recognition of his or her contributions to the public understanding of evolution. The students bring posters with them presenting research that they have participated in at their home institutions. The students are mentored over at least two days of the meeting by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows or faculty, who help the students feel at home at the meeting and help the students network, introducing them to professionals in their field of interest. A highlight of the meeting for the students is the Undergraduate Social, during which they can informally mingle with others attending the meeting and receive support and encouragement. Finally, the students participate in an Undergraduate Futures panel that allows them to ask questions about next steps in their possible careers, in particular graduate school. In this panel and presentation, usually given by a prominent scientist in the field, the students are able to demystify the graduate school application process, achieve best practices for finding an appropriate and competitive slot in graduate school, and learn where to procure funds to support their graduate work. The program supported by this grant has had a measurable impact on the students it has supported. Several of these students have gone on to graduate school and all of the students now better understand what a vibrant and important field evolutionary biology is. Many of them return to the meetings in subsequent years and thereby provide tangible evidence that evolutionary biology as a discipline is becoming increasingly diverse, a healthy sign for any field of science or industry.
