The Henri Seibert Award was initiated in 1992 to provide recognition for the best student papers given at the annual meeting of the SSAR. These awards are named in honor of Henri C. Seibert, an early and tireless supporter of SSAR (having served as an officer for over 20 years) in recognition of outstanding student presentations at the annual meeting.

To be eligible, the presented paper must be the result of research conducted by the presenter. The research must have been done while the student was in either an undergraduate or graduate degree program. The presentations will be judged by the SSAR student prize committee. One Seibert Prize of US $200 may be given in each of the following four categories:

• Conservation
• Ecology
• Evolution/Systematics
• Physiology/Morphology

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Students entering the competition must be members of SSAR. Students can win the Henri Seibert competition only once. Please indicate the category to which you are submitting your abstract on the abstract form in the Call for Papers.

SSAR Henri Seibert Awards for 2007

HENRI SEIBERT AWARD COMMITTEE
Lora L. Smith and Margaret Gunzburger, Co-Chairs

The sixteenth annual Seibert Awards were presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the SSAR in St. Louis, Missouri July 12-17, 2007. These awards are named in honor of Henri C. Seibert, an early and tireless supporter of SSAR, serving as an officer for over 20 years. In recognition of outstanding student presentations at the annual meeting, a single award is given in each of four categories: Morphology & Physiology (4 presentations), Evolution & Systematics (11 presentations), Ecology (16 presentations), and Conservation (12 presentations). All winners will receive a check for US $200 from SSAR and a book from University of California Press compliments of Chuck Crumly.

The Seibert Award Winners for 2007 were:

Morphology & Physiology: Sean Graham (co-authors Ryan Early and Matthew Grober), Georgia State University, “Plasma corticosterone variation in free-ranging male cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus): diel, seasonal, and captive handling effects, and interactions with plasma testosterone”.

Evolution & Systematics: D. Luke Mahler, Harvard University, “Does ecology influence rates of phenotypic variation in island anoles?” Honorable Mention: Matthew Gifford (co-author Allan Larson), Washington University, “A multi-locus assessment of the phylogeography of Ameiva chrysolaema from Hispaniola.

Honorable Mention: Michael Westphal, Oregon State University, “What can garter snakes tell us about coral snake mimicry?”

Ecology: Amanda Subalusky (co-authors Lora L. Smith and Lee Fitzgerald), Texas A&M University, “Ontogenetic shifts in habitat use in the American alligator: another case for the importance of seasonal wetlands”.

Honorable Mention: Mizuki Takahashi (co-author Matthew Parris), University of Memphis, “A test of reproductive isolation between the subspecies of Notophthalmus viridescens”.

Honorable Mention: Shannon K. Hoss (co-authors Lora L. Smith, Gordon Schuett, Craig Guyer), Auburn University, “Home range and multi-scale habitat associations of the eastern diamondbacked rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) in southwest Georgia.

Conservation: Ronald Sutherland, Duke University, “Presence only models for rare North Carolina snake species confirmed with unbiased road-cruising data”.

The judges for 2007 were Patrick Owen (Ohio State University, Lima, OH), Robert Reed (USGS, Ft. Collins, CO), Kevin G. Smith (Washington State University in St. Louis), Robert Espinoza (California State University, Northridge), Chris Austin (Louisiana State University), Frank Burbrink (College of Staten Island/CUNY), Mike Adams (USGS, Corvallis, OR), Michael Dreslik (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), James Vonesh (Virginia Commonwealth University), Brad Shaffer (University of California at Davis), Lora Smith (Jones Ecological Research Center, Newton, GA).