Fishes are the most successful vertebrates on the planet, comprising more than 50% of current vertebrate diversity and supplying an ever-increasing percentage of human protein needs. Unfortunately, many fish species and populations are threatened by human activity and yet our knowledge of their basic biology can be considered rudimentary when compared with mammals. The 2012 "Living Planet Report" lists tropical marine and freshwaters as the most degraded ecosystems of the past 40 years. The first step towards managing, growing or saving any fish species or population is to understand its basic biological functioning. This grant is intended to help early career scientists present their research results at the only meeting devoted entirely to understanding how fish work, the International Congress on the Biology of Fish (ICBF). Although there are other meetings that deal with fisheries management issues, and meetings that focus more broadly on vertebrate function, no other international meeting focuses just on the organismal biology of fish. The ICBF highlights innovative fish research and its application to address societal and environmental issues. The meeting is attended by leading fish physiologists and organismal biologists from over 50 nations. Presenting their research results at this meeting and interacting with more senior scientists is an important step towards building the careers of the next generation of functional fish biologists who will help solve the inevitable fish-related problems of the next century. This conference award will support the travel of students and researchers. Candidates for travel awards will be evaluated on a combination of the scientific quality of their abstract, relevance to the symposia of the meeting, and financial need. Each candidate will submit their abstract and a description of financial need. Scientific quality and relevance will each be judged by members of the Physiology Section Executive Committee or symposia organizers from previous congresses.
The purpose of this grant was to give some of the best graduate students from the United States and three under-developed countries the opportunity to present their research findings at the "10th International Congress on the Biology of Fish" that was held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, July, 2012. The meeting was truly international with 264 delegates from 28 different countries. There were five plenary speakers and fourteen symposia covering a broad range of topics, such as aquaculture, climate change, aquatic toxicants, ionic regulation and stress physiology, to name a few. The support from the National Science Foundation defrayed the expenses of eleven United States students as well as six students from under-developed countries. Three of these students also won one of the six student best poster or oral presentation awards. Presenting their research results at this meeting and interacting with more senior scientists was an important step towards building the careers of this next generation of functional fish biologists who will help solve the inevitable fish-related problems of the next century. Accounting for more than 50% of vertebrate diversity and supplying an ever-increasing percentage of human protein needs, fish are extremely important to the health of this planet. Unfortunately, many fish species and populations are threatened by human activity and yet our knowledge of their basic biology can be considered rudimentary. The first step towards managing, growing or saving any fish species or population is to understand its basic biological functioning. By helping early career scientists present their research results at the only meeting devoted entirely to understanding how fish work, this grant contributed to a healthy future for the fish of the world.
