[Ecophysiology] Student awards winners from 2005 ESA meeting

[Will Cook]

Below is a message from section secretary Gretchen North announcing 
this year's winners.

------- Forwarded message follows -------
It gives me great pleasure to announce the 2005 winners of the 
student awards, given for work presented at the annual meeting of the 
Ecological Society of America.

The recipient of the W.D. and S.M. Billings Award, given in 
recognition of the lifetime contributions of Dwight and Shirley to 
physiological ecology, is Laura Scott-Denton, from the University of 
Colorado-Boulder. Her presentation, entitled "Spatially-explicit 
modeling of soil respiration rate in a high-elevation, subalpine 
forest," was co-authored by Russell Monson.

The recipient of the Best Poster Award is Lisa Patrick, from Texas 
Tech University. Her poster presentation, entitled "Response of net 
ecosystem carbon and water exchange to a large winter precipitation  
pulse in a sotol-grassland at Big Bend National Park, Texas" was co-
authored by Traesha Robertson, Natasja van Gestel, and David Tissue.

Due to the overwhelming preponderance of oral presentations in 
relation to poster presentations, the judges’ committee and officers 
of the Physiological Ecology Section decided to give two Honorable 
Mentions for this year's Billings Award. They are, in alphabetical 
order:

Catarina Moura, from Duke University, for her presentation entitled 
"Gene expression of loblolly pine exposed to elevated CO2 in the 
field," co-authored by Ruth Grene (Virginia Tech) and Robert Jackson.

Rachel Spicer, from Harvard University, for her presentation entitled 
"Small scale patterns with large scale implications: the role of 
programmed cell death in determinig the sapwood volume of forest 
trees," co-authored by N. Michele Holbrook.

Please join me in congratulating these young scientists and their 
mentors, and in thanking all the student entrants in this year's 
award competition. The caliber of the science and the quality of the 
presentations have never been higher.

Gretchen North, Secretary, Physiological Ecology Section
Associate Professor, Biology
Occidental College
Los Angeles, CA 90041