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The WEBEY Award
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The Western Evolutionary Biology Biologist of the Year Prize, or WEBEY, is awarded by NERE, with UCLA Associate Director Jay Phelan chairing the award committee. The Prize is to be awarded annually to an individual from the west of North America (including western Canada and Mexico) who has contributed significantly to the scientific study of biological evolution.

Jay Phelan will be accepting nominations for this award at jay@ucla.edu. All individuals nominated for this award must be willing to attend and speak at the WEB meeting in the year that they receive the award. Current Directors of NERE, members of its advisory board, and University of California officials that supervise NERE are not eligible for this award.

 
2010 WEBEY Award Winner - Maureen L. Stanton, UC-Davis

"Dr. Stanton's research focuses on "Genetic variation in natural populations; Evolutionary responses of plant populations to heterogeneous evironments; Ecology and evoultion of plant reproductuve systems; Plant adaptation to abiotically stressful environments; multi-species mutualisms; and mechanisms of species coexistence."

 

 

Previous WEBEY Award Winners

2009 Webey Award went to Craig Moritz of UC-Berkeley

“Our research centers on the use of molecular approaches to study ecology and evolution and addresses questions including; (1) the use of molecular markers to infer current and historical population processes at various spatial and temporal scales; (2) the effects of historical changes in habitat on current distributions and diversity of faunas,
with particular reference to rainforest biotas; and (3) improving the use of molecular information in conservation biology and the development of strategies that recognize evolutionary processes.”

2008 Webey Award went to Kevin Padian of UC-Berkeley

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Kevin Padian is a Professor of Integrative Biology, Curator of Paleontology, University of California Muesum of Paleontology and President of the National Center for Science Education. Padian's area of interest is in vertebrate evolution, especially the origins of flight and the evolution of birds from theropod dinosaurs. He served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District trial, and his testimony was repeatedly cited in the court's decision.

 

2007 Webey Award went to Albert F. Bennett of UC-Irvine

bennett I am interested in the evolution of physiological and morphological systems and in their adaptations to diverse environmental factors, particularly temperature. My research has examined organismal energetics, performance capacities, and thermoregulation and has attempted to uncover the functional bases of organism-level performance at both the enzymatic and systemic (e.g., muscular, circulatory) levels. I also utilize bacteria to study the processes and consequences of both evolutionary and phenotypic adaptation to novel thermal environments. My current research projects include examinations of
the plasticity of cardiopulmonary function in reptiles and the evolution of thermal and acidity adaptation in experimental evolutionary lineages of bacteria.

 

 
 


 
 

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