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The winner of the 2011 Stephen Jay Gould Prize is Kenneth R. Miller, a Professor of Biology at Brown University. Through his writings, teaching and appearances in court, Dr. Miller has proved an eloquent and passionate defender of evolution and the scientific method. His passion and skill at rebutting the claims of creationists eventually led him to serve as a key witness in several important and high-profile evolution-creationist court cases. Dr. Miller is also well known for his widely used and evolution-themed high-school biology textbook, Biology (with Joseph Levine) and his most recent book, Only a Theory - Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul (2008) was named to Amazon's list of Best Science Books of 2008 and was a finalist for the National Academy of Sciences' Communication Award in 2009.

For the 9th consecutive year the National Science Foundation has funded a program to send talented and diverse undergraduates from across the US to the annual meetings of the Society for the Study of Evolution and the Society for Systematic Biologists (SSE/SSB). This year the program is again being organized by Scott Edwards (Harvard University), Jory Weintraub (NESCent) and Richard Kliman (Cedar Crest College, NJ).  At NEScent, Director of Education and Outreach Brian Wiegmann (Duke University/NESCent) and NESCent staff helped organize the application portal and recruit applicants through their network of student contacts. 

The program covers the costs of travel to the meetings, registration and lodging for 25 undergraduates from the US and Puerto Rico. Students will present a poster on their research in a designated area of one of the poster sessions.  In addition, the students will receive mentoring by a diverse and enthusiastic group of graduate students, postdocs and faculty from across the country and from many different subdisciplines within evolutionary biology.

Please help us celebrate this diverse and talented group of students at Evolution 2011 events open to all:

* Undergraduate Diversity participants will present their posters at the first poster session on
Sunday 19 June from 7:00-9:00 pm in the exhibits hall OK-F-J.

* The Undergraduate Diversity Social is scheduled for Monday 20 June from 5:00-6:30 pm in Sooner A&B. 

* The Undergraduate Futures Talk is scheduled for Tuesday 21 June from 4:00-5:30 pm in Sooner A&B.

The Undergraduate Diversity Social will provide a fun and informal setting for you to meet our 2011 Undergraduate Diversity participants, who this year hail from Alaska all the way to Puerto Rico. The Undergraduate Futures Talk will consist of a short brainstorming seminar on career options as well as a panel of a graduate student, postdoc and faculty member to whom students can ask questions about careers using training in evolutionary biology. Everyone is welcome to these events, and they are a great way to meet the next generation of evolutionary biologists and to share your experiences and advice with this talented group.

We are particularly grateful to Larry Weider, Rich Broughton, Ingo Schlupp, Joey Rodriguez, Deborah Haddock, and the local Organizing Committee at the University of Oklahoma for their enthusiastic support of this program, which benefits everyone in the societies supporting the meeting. Look out for the undergraduate posters at the meeting, and spread the word about this important opportunity for students embarking on careers in evolutionary biology. 

Go here for further information about this and next year’s program.

Submit your best evolution-themed video for screening at this year’s Evolution meeting! The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) invites scientists of all stripes — graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty — to enter the first-ever evolution video competition.

• To Enter
  Submit a video that explains a fun fact, key concept, compelling question, or exciting area of research in evolution in less than three minutes. Entries may be related or unrelated to your own research, and should be suitable for use in a classroom at any level (K-12, undergraduate, graduate...your choice). Videos should be both informative and entertaining.  (In other words, no taped lectures or narrated Powerpoint presentations!)  Animations, music videos, and mini-documentaries are all fair game.

• Selecting the Winners
  A panel of reviewers from both NESCent and the science video community will select the semi-finalists, who will be notified by e-mail. The top finalists will then be screened at a film festival at the 2011 Evolution meeting in Norman, OK, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM on Monday June 20th. After screening the videos, the audience will vote for their favorites. Prizes will be awarded for the top entries.

• Eligibility
  You don’t need to attend the conference to submit an entry. All videos submitted by Friday June 10th (5:00 p.m. ET) are eligible to win.