Best Student Paper

Award Criteria

The Desert Tortoise Council Awards Committee presents the Best Student Paper Award at the close of each Annual Symposium. A presenter must give notice to the Program Chair of his/her student status at the time the Abstract is received. The Best Student Paper Award notice will accompany the call for papers. To qualify as a student, the person must be enrolled at a recognized college or university. Student status must be affirmed by a note from the student’s major professor or advisor and must accompany the Abstract. The award will be in the amount of $200.00.

The Award will be based on the following factors:

• Value of content furthering knowledge of desert tortoise biology, ecology, conservation and/or recovery
• Quality of content, including experimental design, organization and objectives
• Quality of oral presentation
• Quality of visual presentation

A minimum of three people, including the Student Award Chairperson, with a broad knowledge of desert tortoise biology and literature, will evaluate all student presentations. The Chairperson, with the assistance of the other evaluators, will decide upon the winner and will make the award.

Award Recipients

2018: Halle R. Kohn: The Desert’s Canary: A Narrative Examination of the Socio-Political Role of the Threatened Desert Tortoise.

2016: Christina M. Aiello: Upper Respiratory Disease Dynamics: Insights from Transmission Studies

2015: Chava Weitzman: Passengers in a Tortoise Nose

2013: Andy Bridges: Juvenile Sonoran Desert Tortoise( Gopherus morafkai ) Habitat Selection at a Long-term Study Site in Central Arizona, USA

2012: Taylor Edwards: Using Population Assignment Testing to Assess Local Genetic Affinity for Captive Desert Tortoises in California and Nevada; Sorting Out the Complex Evolutionary History of Morafka’s Desert Tortoise
Emily Thorn: Democracy, Capitalism, and Bureaucracy in the Mojave: a Sociological Perspective on Renewable Energy and Sensitive Habitat Management in the Mojave Desert
Rosalinda Palomo Ramos: Foraging Ecology and Nutritional Requirements of the Bolson Tortoise in South-central New Mexico

2011: Taylor Edwards: Looking Backwards In Order To Move Forward; A Review of Desert Tortoise Genetic Research

2010: Christina Davy: Potential Conservation Benefits of Multiple Paternities in the Threatened Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassizii

2009: Scott Hillard: Desert Tortoise Juvenile Hatchery Program at Edwards AFB: an Overview and Update on Program Success
Will Selman: Evaluating the Impacts of Human Disturbance on Endangered Chelonians, with Focus on the Yellow-blotched Sawback ( Graptemys flavimaculata ) of the Pascagoula River System, MS, USA

2008: Ian Murray: A Tale of Two Species: Extirpation, Range Expansion and Evolution in an Extreme Environment During the Late Quaternary

2007: Erin Zylstra: Comparing Strategies for Monitoring Sonoran Desert Tortoises
Jon R. Davis:Dealing with Drought in the Sonoran Desert: The Gila Monster’s Perspective

2006: Erin Zylstra: Monitoring Strategies for the Sonoran Desert Tortoise

2005: Bridgette E. Haggarty: Preserving the Diversity of the Desert Tortoise ( Gopherus agassizii ): Reassessing Conservation Units

2004: Kenneth E. Nussear: Can Modeling of Tortoise Activity Be Used to Improve Species Monitoring?

2003: Taylor Edwards: Analysis of Gene Flow Among Sonoran Tortoise Populations Using Molecular Techniques and Radiotelemetry

2002: Taylor Edwards: Phylogeographic Patterns in Mojave and Sonoran Populations of the Desert Tortoise

2001: Curtis Bjurlin: Predation and Survival During Early Life Stages of the Desert Tortoise in the South-Central Mojave Desert
Lisa Domico: Desert Tortoises as Sentinels of Environmental Toxicants

2000: Danielle Shemanski: Digestible Energy in Foods of Juvenile Desert Tortoises

1999: Kim Field: Desert Tortoise Translocation: The effects of pre-release water availability

1998: Peter Holm: Age Class Structure of a Desert Tortoise ( Gopherus agassizii ) Population in the Tucson Mountains of Saguaro National Park

1997: Matt Brooks: Relationships Between Habitat Factors and the Dominance of Alien Annual Plants at the Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area I. Soil Measurements and II. Annual Plant Biomass Measurements