Comparative & Evolutionary Physiology Section Travel Award sponsored by Dr. Dolittle

Award Description

The American Physiological Society (APS) Comparative & Evolutionary Physiology Section (CEPS) Travel Award recognizes an outstanding graduate student or postdoctoral fellow who completed their PhD within the past five years involved in comparative and evolutionary research. This award is designed to assist the award recipient in attending the American Physiology Summit.

One travel award will be made each year based on the abstracts/blog posts judged to be most meritorious. Awardees are recognized at CEPS business meeting at the American Physiology Summit. This award is sponsored by Dr. Dolittle. The winning blog post will be published on the Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle blog.

Eligibility

The applicant must:

• Be a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow who has completed their PhD within the past five years and is involved in comparative and evolutionary research.
• Be member in good standing of APS, or their sponsor must be an APS member.
• Submit a first-authored abstract to the American Physiology Summit under an CEPS topic category.
• Submit a 450–850-word blog post to Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle.

The blog post should explain in lay language: 

• What the findings are.
• Why they are important.
• What they contribute to our understanding of science.
• Whether the results came as a surprise or were expected.

All entries should be accompanied by a relevant image or video which helps to tell the story behind the study, the researcher or the science itself and a completed blog compliance form and source reference sheet. Abstracts and associated blogs will be reviewed by the CEPS Awards Committee. The Committee will evaluate the submissions and choose one winner based on:

• Scientific merit and abstract quality.
• Message appropriate for the public.
• Creativity and originality. 
• Accuracy of scientific content.  
• Technical merit.  
• Overall artistic value.

Awardees may receive a CEPS Travel Award once as a graduate student and once as a postdoctoral fellow.

Criteria 

The application package includes:

• Abstract number.
• Abstract first author’s name.
• PDF of abstract submission. 
• Abstract sponsor or advisor’s full name. 
• Abstract sponsor or advisor email proof of graduate student or postdoctoral fellow status. 
• Blog compliance form and source reference sheet. 
• Blog post with relevant images. 

Optional

• Abstract sponsor or advisor’s APS membership ID number. 

Content restrictions

• APS logo, name, or website. 
• Copyrighted material, unless it is owned or licensed by the contestant or in the public domain. 
• Trademarks of any third party. 
• Third-party voiceovers. 
• Third-party voiceovers. 
• Nudity, lewd or vulgar behavior, offensive language and/or gestures.
• Exploitation or mistreatment of humans or animals.

Additional limitations

• Contestants must have appropriate permissions to film on sites (e.g., campus, departmental buildings, laboratories).
• No laboratory animals can be used in filming without written permission of the institution and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval. 
• Each contestant may submit only one blog post per year. Entrants submitting more than one blog post will have all their submissions disqualified. 
• Audio and text must be made in or subtitled in English. 
• Submissions must be original and unique. Submissions that appear to be duplicates will be disqualified. APS reserves the right to reject entries that, after examination, appear to infringe the rights of any third party without notice to the contestant(s). Modified versions of professionally produced works will be disqualified. Submissions cannot be derivative works from original works created by persons or entities other than the contestant(s). 

Applications are only accepted via online submission.