Ralph A. Lewin Poster Award

The Ralph A. Lewin Poster Award competition will be held at the annual PSA meeting. The Lewin Award was established in 2009 by colleagues of Ralph A. Lewin, former president of The Society and a distinguished teacher and researcher at The University of California at San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Lewin Award shall consist of a certificate and a monetary prize of $500.

Lewin Award Eligibility: Graduate students who are PSA members, regardless of nationality, are eligible to compete for the Lewin Award, as well as former students within twelve months of completion of their degree. Posters with multiple authors are permitted, but the student competing for the award must be the first and presenting author. Only one poster per student per year may be entered in the competition. If meeting rules allow multiple posters to be contributed by the same presenting author, the student must designate which poster is to be considered for the award.

To compete for the Lewin Award: Students must notify the Award Committee chair (Dr. Matt Ashworth, address below) via e-mail by the close of registration for the annual PSA meeting. The email must include (1) a statement of interest, (2) a tentative title of their presentation, and (3) the name and contact information of the student’s research director (mentor or major advisor) or department chair.  The student must request that an original signed letter be sent by email to the Award Committee Chair directly from the student's research director (mentor or major advisor) or department chair, verifying that the candidate is a student and that the work to be presented represents the initiative, imagination, and labor of the student. In the case of multiple authors, the mentor will need to certify that the poster is primarily the work of the candidate. This letter of support must also be received by the close of registration for the annual PSA meeting.

Lewin Award Committee Chair:

Dr. Matt Ashworth
University of Texas, Austin
UTEX Culture Collection of Algae
205 W. 24th St.
Biological Laboratories, 316
Austin, TX 78712 USA
email

Additional stipulations:

1.   Only one poster per student per year may be entered in the competition. If meeting rules allow multiple posters to be contributed by the same presenting author, the student must designate which poster is to be considered for the award. Poster size limit is 3' x 4'.

2.   There is no limit to the number of years in which a student may enter this competition. Posters describing the same overall project may be entered in multiple years but only if there are new data included in successive years. Posters on a student's project that has previously won the Lewin or the Bold Award are not eligible. Students who have won the Lewin Award are eligible to present the same project in the Bold Award competition in a later year if additional data are included.

3.   Judging will include multiple aspects of the poster itself as well as the student's ability to informally discuss their work at the poster session.

Past Recipients

Past Recipients

• 2022 - Danielle Hatt. Short-term effects of increased temperature on the growth and photo-physiological responses of pelagic Sargassum (Phaeophyceae) morphoptypes.

• 2021 - Pomona Osmers. Defining optimum: growth conditions affect heat stress resistance in the antarctic extremophile Chlamydomonas sp. UWO241.

• 2019 - Karli Hollister. Coral-algal competition and overgrowth dynamics of a rapidly emerging red alga (Ramicrusta sp.) in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

• 2018 - Jacob Munz. Arginine-culture induces nitrogen starvation responses during photosynthetic growth in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

• 2017 - Sabrina Heiser. Factors driving the production of defensive secondary metabolites in the Antarctic red seaweed Plocamium cartilagineum

• 2016 - Robin Sleith. In Characeae: "Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects".

• 2015 - Nikolaus Schultz. Evaluating Heterotrophic Growth Capabilities of Eight Green Algae that Symbiose with Spotted Salamanders.

• 2014 - Catharina Grubaugh. Periphyton protein content in aquatic ecosystems with contrasting N and P supplies.

• 2013 - Ying Yang. Effects of light quality on Ettlia oleoabundans: role of red and far-red lights on growth and oil.

• 2012 - Ying Yang. (with co-authors B. Mininberg, A. Tarbet and P. J. Weathers). Effects of light intensity and temperature on Ettlia oleobundans: balancing biomass with lipid yield and quality.

• 2011 - Ken Hamel. Effects of nitrogen on rates of photoacclimation by invasive and native species of Gracilaria (Rhodophyta).