Student Conference Awards

SMM Student Awards

Student abstracts and presentations are assessed by a panel of judges and the most outstanding work and presentations are recognized during the end of conference awards ceremony.

 

Previous Student Conference Award Winners:

 

2024 Regional Student Award Winners:

Africa

Asia

Europe

Latin and South America

North America

Oceania

 

2019 World Marine Mammal Conference Global Student Award Winners:

 

ACCOBAMS Student Awards

  • Alessia Scuder
    How to get mutual benefit for whale watching companies and cetaceans
  • Alicia Borque Espinosa
    Developing a diagnostic tool to assess respiratory health in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) through spirometry

Africa

  • Sibu Ngqulana
    A take on years of wrangling over a controversial taxonomy: Delphinus spp. in South African waters
  • Jonathan Botha
    Geographic and individual-based differences in the trophic ecology of the Cape fur seal

Asia

  • Sui Hyang Kuit
    Ranging patterns of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in the Matang Important Marine Mammal Area in Perak, peninsular Malaysia
  • Mika Kuroda-Matsuo
    Clicks-sound production and frequency determining mechanism in the head of small toothed whales; Functional morphology with acoustical interpretation

Latin and South America

  • Guilherme Frainer
    Echo-devo: Ontogeny and evolution of the sound generating structures in dolphins (Odontoceti: Delphinidae)
  • Larissa Dalpaz de Azevedo
    Another brick in the wall: Assessing population structure of Bryde’s whales (Balaenoptera brydei) through a multi-method approach.

Europe

  • Jonas F.L.Schwarz
    The deep, the shallow and the indecisive: Foraging strategies of Galápagos sea lions
  • Katherine Whyte
    An evaluation of Mahalanobis distance as a method to detect behavioural response in marine mammals from tag data

North America

  • Kahlia Gonzales
    Female productivity and calf survivorship of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Bocas, Panama
  • Heather Barrett
    Investigating the energetic cost of human disturbance on the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis)

Oceania

  • Kaja Wierucka
    Chemical fingerprints suggest direct familiarisation rather than phenotype matching during olfactory recognition in Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea)
  • Laetitia Smoll
    Osmoregulation and electrolyte balance in a fully marine mammal, the dugong (Dugong dugon)

2017 Student Conference Award Winners:

  • Charlotte Dunn (Video)
    Bahamian sperm whales: Smaller than average (Read abstract)
  • Emily Humble (Talk– Pre-doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
    Measuring inbreeding in a declining population of Antarctic fur seals
  • Charmaine Hamilton (Talk – Doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
    Impacts of sea-ice declines on a pinnacle Arctic predator-prey relationship; habitat, behaviour and spatial overlap between coastal polar bears and ringed seals.
  • Sarah Strobel (Speed Talk – Pre-doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
    A Behavioural Assessment of Active Touch in Sea Otters: Paw and Whisker Texture Discrimination in Air and Underwater
  • Kirsten Thompson (Speed Talk – Doctoral Student) (Read abstract.)
    Gray’s beaked whales: An elusive but abundant species of the Southern Hemisphere?
  • Karen Backe (Poster – Pre-doctoral Student) (Read abstract; See poster.)
    Effect of sea level rise and storm surge on Pacific harbor seal habitat: A comparison of haul-out changes at the Russian and Eel River Estuaries
  • Stephen Chan (Poster – Doctoral Student) (Read abstract; See poster.)
    Survival or extinction of a declining population? Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins at the brink in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Estuary