The Samuel Gruber Endowment Fund was established in 1988 by Dr. Samuel H. Gruber, founding member of AES, to benefit the society primarily by encouraging excellence in research and scientific papers by student members. The purpose of the Gruber Fund is to provide monies on a continuing basis for the Gruber Award, which is given for the best oral paper by a student member at the annual AES meeting. The current amount of the award is $300, of which half is drawn from the Gruber Fund and the other half comes from AES general operating funds.
The winner of the award is chosen by the AES Student Awards Committee, an ad hoc group of reviewers appointed each year by the AES President. Over the past 24 years the Gruber Award has become an entrenched part of the society’s growing legacy and a prestigious honor for its student members. Previous winners have represented many different disciplines in elasmobranch biology, including physiology, behavior, ecology and other fields, and many have gone on to full-time scientific careers.
Students are eligible to compete for the Gruber Award if all the following criteria are met. Gruber candidates:
- must be enrolled as an undergraduate or graduate student, or have completed their degree no more than 12 months before the presentation date;
- must be in at least their second year of AES membership;
- must be a member in good standing of AES, having renewed their membership by the end of the previous calendar year (by 31 December the previous year);
- must be first author of their presented study;
- must present a completed study (i.e., not merely preliminary data; candidates should be able to tell a ‘complete story’ with all data collection and analyses finished before the presentation date, but the study does not need to be published);
- must have their Gruber candidacy endorsed by their advisor (ideally) or another professional member of AES who will serve as a mentor/advocate;
- must not have competed for the Gruber Award more than once before, if an undergraduate or master’s student, or more than twice before, if a Ph.D. student (i.e., students can compete for the Gruber Award up to two times as an undergraduate student, up to two times as a master’s student, and up to three times as a Ph.D. student; these counts will start at the 2019 meeting in Snowbird, Utah);
- must indicate at the time of abstract submission their intention to compete for the Gruber Award and check a box asserting that they intend to present a completed study that is endorsed by their advisor (ideally) or another professional member of AES. There will be textboxes to enter the endorser’s name, e-mail, and relationship to the student. If the endorser is not the student’s advisor, a brief explanation of the reason will need to be entered in another textbox.
Remember that to be “in good standing” students must renew their memberships before the first day of the calendar year, e.g. to qualify for the Gruber Award for the 2019 annual meeting, students must have renewed their society membership by 31 December 2018.
If students do not meet these criteria, they are still encouraged to present at the AES meeting, but not to compete for the Gruber Award.
Please find guidelines and recommendations designed for students competing for the Gruber Award here.
Andrew Nosal
Chair, Gruber Award CommitteeDepartment of Environmental and Ocean Sciences
University of San Diego
San Diego, CA 92110
anosal@sandiego.edu