2023 AAG Paleoenvironmental Change (PEC) Specialty Group Student Research Competition
2023 COMPETITION NOT YET OPENED. Check back in late Winter for an update

Below is historical information on the competition

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) Paleoenvironmental Change (PEC) Specialty Group requests proposals for its 2016 student research competition. Awards will be given in two categories: Undergraduate/Master student and Ph.D. student.

For the 2016 competition, there are two possible awards:
1)    One radiocarbon date (provided by the Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia); or 
2)    Cash prize ($300 for Ph.D. and $250 UG/Masters) to be used for direct costs associated with proposed research project (i.e., research travel, supplies, etc.), salaries or indirect costs are not allowed.

APPLICATIONS DUE TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016
A panel of PEC board members (excluding student members) will evaluate the proposals on a 50-point scale based on the following: 

1. Scientific Merit of the proposed research project, including originality of research, significance of the research to the PEC emphasis on Pleistocene and Holocene environmental change, quality of methods, and summary of anticipated results (30 points);
2. Organization and clarity of the proposal (5 points);
3. Qualifications of the student to successfully conduct proposed research project (10 points); and
4. Impact the award will have on applicant’s academic/professional career (5 points).

To apply for this competition, you must be a current member of both the AAG and the PEC Specialty Group and submit the following electronically in a single attached pdf file (please use 2016 PEC Student Research Competition as the subject line of your email) to Dr. Jim Doerner (james.doerner@unco.edu) by Tuesday, March 1, 2016: 

1. Cover sheet (1 page, see below)
2. Research proposal (2-page, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins that includes a brief summary for the proposed research, a rough timeline for the proposed research, and references).
3. Abbreviated biographical sketch/CV, including research experience and past and existing grants/awards from other sources (1-page maximum)
4. Letter of support from student’s faculty advisor should be sent directly from the supervisor to james.doerner@unco.edu

2016 winners will be announced at the PEC Specialty Group business meeting held at the annual AAG meeting (March 29-April 2, 2016) in San Francisco.

For additional information about this research competition, please contact:
Dr. Jim Doerner Dept. of Geography & GIS 
University of Northern Colorado
Campus Box 116
Greeley, CO 80639
Phone: (970) 351-2733
Email: james.doerner@unco.edu

The Paleoenvironmental Change Specialty Group sponsors three annual awards to encourage student participation in the annual meeting and to recognize outstanding student research.  Competition for the award is open to undergraduate and graduate students (including those receiving their Ph.D. within a year after the dissertation defense). 
 
PECSG Presentation Awards
 
Category
Prize

Poster
Certificate and $50.00 Cash Prize

Undergraduate/Master’s Student Paper
Certificate and $100.00 Cash Prize

Ph.D. Student Paper
Certificate and $100.00 Cash Prize

 
Students are encouraged to submit to the appropriate award category. For example, students in the early stages of their masters or doctoral research should apply for the poster competition.  Those students nearing the completion of their respective degrees should consider applying for the paper sessions.
 
The student must be either the sole author or the primary author of the paper, and must be the presenter at the meeting.
 
Judging criteria include: the significance and originality of the research question, the creativity and the quality of the methodology, the validity of the conclusions drawn from the results, and the clarity of the presentation.
 
If you wish to be considered for the award, please email the application form below and a copy of the abstract to Michael Pisaric.
 
Email: mpisaric@brocku.ca
 
DEADLINE
The application form and abstract must be received by March 1, 2016

We are calling for papers for one or more PEC paper sessions at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 21-25.

This session(s) will focus on peat ecology, and the use of peatlands in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Topics for papers may include, but are certainly not limited to, peatland ecological or hydrological dynamics, 

Pyrogeography seeks to understand the spatio-temporal patterns of fire as a function of the complex interplay of human and environmental factors.  Over the past century, there have been enormous changes in human perceptions and uses of fire around the world. Moreover, climate and fuel conditions have been rapidly changing in recent decades, further altering interactions between fire and its various controls...

There will be a special poster session at this year's AAG meeting coordinated to coincide with the Physical Geography Symposium on environmental reconstruction.  A description of the session and other information is given below.  If any of you would like to present a poster at this session, please contact Don Sullivan (dsulliva@du.edu) or Maria Caffrey (Maria.Caffrey@colorado.edu) as soon as possible so that we may group our posters together in a special PEC-sponsored subsection.

The Physical Geography poster session is on Thursday, April 23, 2015 at the AAG meeting in Chicago.
Please join our effort to promote the Physical Geography poster session that will take place on Thursday afternoon, April 23, 2015 at the AAG meeting in Chicago.  We encourage ALL physical geographers, at all career stages, to consider presenting their work in poster format at this year's AAG meeting.

We are calling for papers for an Historical Ecology paper session at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 21-25, 2015. 

This session will focus on ecological conditions obtained from historical records, such as aerial photographs, diaries, herbarium specimens, museum archives, and presettlement (e.g. GLO) land surveys. The records could be of plants, animals, or other taxonomic groups, or of human or natural disturbance of ecological conditions.  Topics may include, but are not limited to, (a) reconstruction of past landscapes and ecosystems for one time period, (b) predictions of species distributions, (c) records of ecological change within a region through time, (d) records of natural disturbances within a region, (e) investigations into causal mechanisms of ecological change, or (f) methodological or data quality issues in the use of historical records.