Student Prizes – Volunteer Judges

Each year, a range of prizes are awarded to student members judged to have given the best talks and posters at the ESA conference. These prizes can make a major difference to our student members – as a morale boost, in defeating imposter syndrome and for longer-term career prospects.  

We are calling for volunteer judges to help with this program. If you are interested in assisting with judging spoken papers or posters, please email nextgen@ecolsoc.org.au with “ESA2024 judging” as the subject line.

As judges assess PhD students and honours students, it is a requirement that all judges have already been awarded a PhD (at least one year ago) or else are an established ecological researcher/consultant with at least 5 years of experience. 

You can choose to be a judge of just talks, of posters or of both! A judging spreadsheet and instructions will be provided once your Expression of Interest is accepted (closer to the conference).

TALKS: We need around 40 volunteer judges, with each judge asked to assess 15 student talks during the conference. You can choose the talks that you wish to attend, although we do ask that you avoid judging anything for which you have a conflict of interest. You will be asked  to rank the 15 talks you attended from 1 (highest) to 15 (lowest). It’s a relatively simple process and a great chance to see the next generation of Australian ecologists strut their stuff!

POSTERS: We need about 16 volunteers to help judge the student posters. Each judge is asked to assess 15 posters and rank them from 1 (highest) to 15 (lowest).  There are lots of terrific prizes for posters and the dedicated Barbara Rice Memorial Poster Session is a yearly highlight for ESA meetings.

If you feel you can volunteer, please be part of the wonderful ESA community that does this annual job and which helps our student members.