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2026 ASN Early Career Investigator Awards

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The ASN Early Career Investigator Award was established in 1984 to recognize outstanding and promising work by investigators who received their doctorates in the three years preceding the application deadline or who are in their final year of graduate school. (Time since PhD degree can be extended by 1 year for each child born or adopted during this period if the applicant has been a primary care giver. Other forms of exceptional caregiving responsibility [e.g., partner, spouse, aged parent, etc]. or extenuating circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis.)

We are pleased to announce that this year’s recipients of the ASN Early Career Investigator Awards are Brooke Bodensteiner, Tomas Kay, Patrick McKenzie, Takahiro Sakamoto, and Erin Westeen!

Erin P. Westeen (Arizona State University, Texas A&M, and UNAM) is an evolutionary ecologist who studies how phenotypic diversity arises and mediates species interactions in vertebrates with a focus on squamate reptiles.
Takahiro Sakamoto (Kyushu University) is a theoretical population geneticist who mainly studies the dynamics of local adaptation under complex spatial structure and polygenic architectures.
Patrick F. McKenzie (Harvard University) is a botanist who integrates systematics, speciation, and natural history approaches to study evolution in North American flowering plants.
Tomas Kay (Rockefeller University) combines genotypes of clonal ants into chimeric colonies to study social evolutionary dynamics.
Brooke L. Bodensteiner (University of Alabama) is an evolutionary ecologist who studies how reptiles interact with their thermal environments and how those interactions shape evolutionary patterns of phenotypic diversity.

We are very much looking forward to the participation of Bodensteiner, Kay, and McKenzie in the ASN Early Career Investigator symposium at the upcoming annual meeting in Cleveland, Ohio (June 23 from 2:30 to 5:30 PM), and of Sakamoto and Westeen next year in Puerto Rico!

We wish to thank the Early Career Awards Committee members for their hard work evaluating the many competitive applications: Drs. Jean-Philippe Gibert (chair), Sarah Fitzpatrick, Chris Moore, and Jesse Weber.

ASN Awards for Support of Regional Meetings in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The American Society of Naturalists calls for grant proposals to support regional conferences and workshops.

ASN offers grants, typically under $2500, to support undergraduate and/or graduate student involvement in (1) topically broad but regionally focused small meetings on ecology and/or evolution and (2) training workshops on more specialized topics within the scope of ASN’s goals to advance the conceptual unification of biology.

These grants are intended to strengthen the valuable role that such regional meetings and workshops can play in the development of junior members of our field. We particularly seek proposals that benefit ASN student members.

ASN members who wish to apply for a grant should submit a proposal including all information in the application details section below. Proposals are evaluated based on their alignment with the goals of the American Society of Naturalists and the benefits they will provide to ASN members.

Previous proposals, for example, have paid for reduced registration costs for ASN student members or paid for plenary speakers. The event in question should be open to participants from more than a single institution. The grant should not be used to cover indirect costs, such as salaries, personnel expenses, or payments to commercial teaching staff.

Successful grant recipients should provide a brief post for the ASN newsletter within three months of the event. Additionally, we request a brief report indicating how funds were used and how students benefited. The committee will consider the outcomes of previous events when evaluating proposals from applicants previously supported by the ASN.

Proposals are reviewed twice annually in February and August, with successful applicants being notified in March and September. Proposals may be sent to Claudia Crowther (claudiacrowther@gmail.com), 2026 chair of the ASN committee for these grants. Please feel free to contact us with any informal inquiries or for more information.

Title, location, and intended dates for the event.
The name and contact details of the ASN member responsible for organizing the event and overseeing the expenditure of any funds awarded.
A short description (no more than 100 words) of the event to be used as an announcement in the ASN newsletter should the event be funded.
A 1–2 page proposal that answers the following questions:
- What are the aims and scope of the event?
- What training and networking opportunities will the event provide?
- How will the event benefit ASN members (including student members)?
- Does the event have the potential to attract new ASN members?
- How will the event benefit people from groups historically excluded from science?
- How will the event advance the conceptual unification of biology?
- How will the outcomes of the event be evaluated?
- If the event was previously supported by the ASN, what were the outcomes? If a post-event report was submitted, you may attach it in answer to this question.
A tabulated budget for the event, explaining how ASN funding would be used to support the event. Please include details of funding sought and received from other sources, and indicate if this funding has been confirmed.

2026 ASN Presidential Award

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The winner of the 2026 ASN Presidential Award, chosen from among all of the papers published in The American Naturalist in 2025, is “Accelerated Phenology Fails to Buffer Fitness Loss from Delayed Rain Onset in a Clade of Wildflowers” by Samantha J. Worthy, Sarah R. Ashlock, Arquel Miller, Julin N. Maloof, Sharon Y. Strauss, Jennifer R. Gremer, and Johanna Schmitt (205: 485-501). Congratulations!

Phenotypic plasticity looms large in our ability to understand and predict the persistence of species in nature. In this study, the authors tested the extent to which phenotypic plasticity buffers fitness in a clade of ten winter annual wildflowers. In Mediterranean climates in California, fall rains (which trigger germination in many plants) are arriving later with climate change, resulting in shorter growing seasons. When faced with delayed rains (and delayed germination), many plants will develop faster and flower at a smaller size to buffer flowering timing. In this data rich study, the authors experimentally manipulated germination timing and then raised plants outside under semi-natural conditions. They found that plants decreased time to flowering as a response to delayed germination and that some species flowered at a smaller size. They also found that – while rapid development and decreased time to flowering appears to be adaptive – it was not enough to buffer plants from the decreased fitness effects of delayed germination. Finally, the authors found that the degree of plasticity had diverged across the clade of wildflowers with species in novel, wet environments showing higher levels of plasticity than species from the desert environment, which is the ancestral condition. This paper is an excellent contribution to The American Naturalist. It has a strong conceptual motivation and clear conservation relevance, and it focuses on diversity in hard-to-measure but critically important traits for population persistence.

—Rebecca C. Fuller, ASN President

2026 ASN Student Research Award

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The ASN congratulates the winners of its Student Research Awards. For more information on this award, please see the description here. The 2026 winners (in no particular order) are as follows:

Alden Sears, NC State: Plant persistence via pollination: patterns of pollen dispersal and visitor fidelity
Charlotte Probst, University of Michigan: Cross-trophic consequences of activity change in response to heat waves
Christina Steinecke, Harvard University: The role of pollinator behaviour in the establishment of an allopolyploid Phlox
Daniel A. Gutierrez-Carrillo, Florida State: Investigating the neurogenomic correlates of social courtship behavior in manakins (Pipridae)
Denis Calandriello Calio, Universidade Estadual de Campinas: Molecular Bases of Genital Developmental Plasticity in Males
Gina Lucas, UC Riverside: An Experimental Test of Natural Selection on Chromosomal Inversions
Louisa Bartkovich, University of Toronto: Pocketful of sunshine: Decoupling the effects of shifting spring light regimes on reproductive timing in an understory plant species
Max L. Witynski, University of Michigan: Does seasonal migration boost genetic diversity via demographic stability and life history?
Swastik Pritam Padhy, University of Minnesota: Effect of pesticides on sexual communication and its potential implication on species reproductive barriers
Sydney Szwed, Illinois State University: A time to fight and a time to heal: is the tradeoff between aggression and immunity contingent on the nutritional environment in crickets?

We look forward to seeing the results of your research!

ASN Symposia at Virtual Evolution 2026

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

I am pleased to share details about ASN's programming at the upcoming Virtual Evolution meeting, taking place May 20–22, 2026.

We have two symposia and an IDEA Award Plenary talk:

Putting Mutations in Context: The Genomic and Environmental Impacts on the Distribution of Fitness Effects of New Mutations (May 22, 9:00–10:30 AM EDT) tackles one of the central questions in evolutionary genetics: how do the genomic context and environment shape the fitness consequences of new mutations? Speakers include Deepa Agashe, Charles Fenster, David McCandlish, Matthew Rutter, Siliang Song, and Frank Stearns (organizer). Collectively, their work spans theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding mutation.
ASN Student Research Award Symposium (May 22, 5:30–7:00 PM EDT) is an exciting new addition to our programming. This symposium showcases past ASN Student Research Award winners. Speakers include Takuji Usui, Matthew Kustra, Nitin Ravikanthachari, Julia Harenčár, and Taylor Zallek. This symposium highlights the excellent research that has been supported through this award over the years.
Tri-Society IDEA Award Talk (May 22, 8:00–9:00 AM EDT) will be given by Dr. Maurine Neiman (University of Iowa). Professor Neiman has spent her career expanding access and inclusion in the evolutionary biology community.

In addition, Virtual Evolution will also feature symposia from Society for the Study of Evolution (Hamilton Symposium, Presidential Symposium, and Lifetime Achievement Award winner plenary) and the Society for the Study of Systematic Biology (Ernst Mayr award session). SSE will also have talks from the 2 winners of the Presidents' Award for Best Dissertation Paper published in Evolution or Evolution Letters.

The full program can be seen here: https://www.evolutionmeetings.org/program-overview.html

I hope to see you there!

Becky Fuller
President, American Society of Naturalists

Incoming Editor-in-Chief

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The ASN and the University of Chicago Press are excited to announce that Dr. Troy Day has generously agreed to serve as the next Editor-in-Chief of The American Naturalist, starting in January 2027. Troy is a distinguished mathematical biologist whose work sits at the intersection of evolutionary biology, ecology, and applied mathematics. He is Professor in both the Department of Biology and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, at Queen's University in Canada. His research spans evolutionary biology, mathematical epidemiology, and the evolutionary theory of infectious disease dynamics, with his group developing mathematical methods—including stochastic processes, dynamical systems, and game theory—to analyze evolutionary and epidemiological questions. He was a Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Biology from 2002 to 2012. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, two mathematics textbooks, a textbook on mathematical modeling in biology, and a monograph on nongenetic inheritance in evolutionary biology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served on the Modeling Consensus Table of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. His publications include about a dozen articles in The American Naturalist. His achievements have been widely recognized. His awards include an E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship and a Canada Council Killam Research Fellowship, and he is an elected Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Canada. His work on both ecology and evolution, merging theory and data, places him at exactly the intellectual crossroads that The American Naturalist has made its brand. He has the experience as an author, reviewer, Associate Editor, and Co-Editor, to serve in this role effectively. In our past interactions with him, we all felt that he has a history of writing perceptive, kind, and rigorous reviews and decisions. We are confident that his expertise and style of editing will be exactly what the journal needs for the challenging next four years. Dr. Day will be transitioning into his new role over the course of the coming year with the outstanding assistance of outgoing EIC Volker Rudolf and Managing Editor Owen Cook.

2026 Grad Student Travel Awards

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The ASN is offering financial assistance to facilitate graduate student participation at the Evolution conference in Cleveland in June 2026. Graduate student members of the ASN can request to be considered for a $500 US travel award. To be eligible, the student must present a talk or poster and must not have received the travel award in the previous year. Applications are made during conference registration and will be accepted until midnight Eastern Daylight Time on April 15, 2026. Recipients will be randomly selected from the list of applicants and all applicants will be informed of the outcome by email by April 22 at the latest (i.e. ahead of the early registration deadline of April 15). Society membership status will be verified prior to awards being given, so please ensure your membership is up to date (you can check here). Funds are given out at the conference.

Student members of both the ASN and SSE can apply for both this and the SSE graduate & postdoc registration waivers, but can receive a maximum of one. Please click here for additional information on this and other means of financial support.

2026 ASN Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Conceptual Unification of the Biological Sciences

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The winner of the 2026 Conceptual Unification award is Dr. Steven A. Frank (University of California, Irvine). Steven Frank has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of modern biology by developing rigorous mathematical frameworks that bridge the gap between individual-level mechanisms and population-level patterns. By extending evolutionary principles into unconventional domains—such as the dynamics of cancer progression, the "mother’s curse" in mitochondrial inheritance, and the link between biochemical thermodynamics and microbial design—Frank has provided a universal language for understanding organismal design. His contributions move beyond specific biological cases to uncover the foundational statistical and information-theoretic symmetries that govern all of nature’s diverse patterns. Key contributions span diverse fields including social and microbial evolution, biomedical synthesis, cancer and immunology, and biological robustness. Frank has influenced generations of evolutionary biologists and ecologists and demonstrated how our fundamental understanding of natural selection is key to our understanding of disease, health and the natural world.

The ASN Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Conceptual Unification of the Biological Sciences is given annually to honor relatively senior but still active investigators who are making fundamental contributions to the Society's goals in promoting the conceptual unification of the biological sciences.

The ASN thanks committee members Dr. Emilie Snell-Rood (chair), Dr. Mike McCoy, and Dr. John Stinchcombe for evaluating candidates.

Proposals for symposia at the ASN stand-alone meeting in Long Island 2027

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The American Society of Naturalists will be holding an East Coast meeting in 2027 (announcement here) in Glen Cove, New York, to hold our stand-alone conference – Long Island 2027 – on 8-12 January 2027!

Have an idea for a special symposium? We want to hear it!

The ASN Symposium Committee invites you to submit proposals for a special symposium. Proposed symposium topics should support the Society’s goal to advance the conceptual unification of the biological sciences and to further knowledge in evolution, ecology, behavior, and organismal biology. Topics could center around important emerging issues in evolution, ecology, or behavior or focus on a pivotal historical paper, tracing its impact and exploring current cutting-edge research inspired by this work. A budget of up to $5,000 is available to defray travel, registration, and lodging costs for speakers.

Proposals should include (1) a title; (2) a description of the symposium topic (up to one page); (3) a list of six speakers, including institutional affiliations, who have agreed to participate in the symposium; (4) a justification for the symposium, explaining why the topic and speakers are appropriate for an ASN symposium (up to one page).

Please submit proposals by email (cas383@miami.edu) no later than midnight Eastern Time on April 30, 2026. Send your proposal as a single pdf attachment, under subject heading “ASN Long Island 2027 Symposium Proposal”.

In line with the ASN's commitment to diversity, we encourage including speakers from groups who have been historically excluded from STEM. Therefore, proposals that include a diverse list of speakers from a range of backgrounds, institutions, career stages, geography, gender, race, etc. are especially encouraged. The Society’s selection committee will evaluate proposals based on their potential to attracting substantial audience and stimulate discussion, the significance and timeliness of the topic, and on the topic’s differing substantively from recent symposia hosted by the Society. Applicants will be notified of the decision before the end of May 2026.

Christopher Searcy
ASN Symposium Committee Chair
Department of Biology
University of Miami
cas383@miami.edu

2026 ASN Distinguished Naturalist Award

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The Distinguished Naturalist Award is given annually to an active midcareer scientist who has made significant contributions to the knowledge of a particular ecosystem or group of organisms and who, through this work, has illuminated key principles of evolutionary biology and an enhanced appreciation of natural history. The winner of the 2026 Distinguished Naturalist Award is Dr. Daniel Kronauer.

Dr. Kronauer is, at heart, an ant naturalist. He combines depth of knowledge of ant biology with tropical fieldwork and state-of-the-art laboratory tools to uncover how ant societies are built, function, and evolve. He is well known for his experimental studies of army ants and their relatives, tracing the evolution of their remarkable mating systems, social organization, and collective behavior. In one line of research, he revealed the extreme polyandry of army ant queens and leveraged it to test foundational ideas about inclusive fitness and reproductive conflict. In another, he developed the clonal raider ant as a laboratory model, pioneering the first genetically modified and transgenic ants to illuminate the molecular and neural bases of pheromone communication, caste differentiation, and division of labor. At the same time, his field studies have uncovered the rich ecological networks surrounding army ants, including spectacular symbionts new to science. Dr. Kronauer’s enthusiasm for ants extends beyond the laboratory and forest: through award-winning photography and public scholarship, he conveys the beauty and drama of social insects to scientists and the broader public alike.

Adam Siepielski (chair)
Trevor Price
Andrew Suarez
Stuart West