WINNERS OF THE STUDENT PRESENTATION COMPETITIONS
2010
Amber N. Brown of Florida State University won the 2010 award for the outstanding oral presentation by a graduate student. Ms. Brown’s talk was entitled “Identification of Telomere Length Regulating Factors in Zea maize.” 
Kyle Gabrick of the University of Tennessee won the 2010 award for the outstanding poster presentation by an undergraduate student in the Aubrey Naylor Undergraduate Poster Competition. Mr. Gabrick’s poster was entitled “Luminescence Imaging and it’s Application to Biosensor Research.”
2009
Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Michael Wu and Noel Wat, The University of Texas at Austin, "Effects of extracellular nucleotides on Arabidopsis root hair growth after removing endogenously-deposited extracellular nucleotides using a wash method", Major Advisor: Stanley Roux
Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Marta Bjornson, Rice University, "Screening for peroxisome function mutants", Major Advisor: Bonnie Bartel
Unfortunately, no images of the student winners are available for this year.
2008
Vijay Singh of the University of North Texas was the winner of the graduate oral presentation competition with their awards. (Stephan Banks presenting awards)
Parag Sevak from the University of Texas at Austin, winner of the Aubrey Naylor undergraduate poster competition.
Jonathan Torres from the University of Texas at Austin was the winner of the undergraduate oral presentation competition.
2007
The graduate award went to James H. Chappell (Louisiana State University) for his presentation titled “Is oxidative stress the cause of recalcitrant seed death in Spartina alterniflora?”. Mentor: Marc Cohn
The undergraduate award for best oral presentation went to Molly M. Mintz (University of South Alabama) for her presentation titled “The effects of thermal stress on Chl-a
fluorescence and HSP 70 expression in Thalassia testudinum”. Mentors: Kelly Major, Anne Boettcher, and Tim Sherman
The Aubrey Naylor Award winner was Brooke Roberts (Rollins College) for her poster titled “The cloning and characterization of a putative bifunctional nuclease in Nepenthes ventricosa”. Mentor: Paul Stephenson
2006
Gonzalo M. Estavillo (University of Florida) was awarded best graduate student presentation for his talk entitled, “Differential Regulation of NADP-ME Decarboxylases in a Single-Cell, C4 Angiosperm”. Mentor: Alice Harmon
Matthew Pye (Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA) that won best poster for his presentation entitled, “Modulators of Plant Invertase Activity”. Mentor: Tom Arnold
2005
The outstanding graduate student presentation was awarded to Jennifer Barwick (University of South Carolina Upstate) for the presentation “Functional Characterization of the nicotianamine synthase (NAS) gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana”.
The Aubrey Naylor Outstanding Undergraduate Poster award was presented to Peter Aspesi (North Carolina State University) for the poster “Is InsP3 signaling involved in plant defense responses to pathogens?”
(Unfortunately, Mr. Aspesi was unavailable for photography)
2004
Two graduate student talks were recognized with awards:
Scott M. Pelitire (above left) for the presentation “Functional analysis, subcellular localization, and gene expression patterns of four cytochrome b5 isoforms cloned from developing tung (Aleurites fordii Hemsl.) seeds.” Scott worked withDr. John Dyer (pictured with Scott) at the University of New Orleans.
Ruby Ynalvez for the presentation “Characterization of an insertional mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.” Ruby worked with Dr. Jim Moroney (pictured with Ruby) at Louisiana State University.
The 2004 award for best undergraduate poster went jointly to Jamie Hogan and Ron Butendieck from Rollins College for their coauthored poster “Enzymatic activity, cloning, and comparison of hydrolytic enzymes found in Nepenthes burkei.” Jamie and Ron worked with Dr. Paul Stephenson (above right).
2003
Two awards were presented for graduate student talks. One award went to Stephen Stout (right), UT Austin, for his presentation entitled “Polarity Development in Ceratopteris richardii” and the other oral presentation award winner was Collene Jeter (left) , UT Austin, for her presentation entitled “ATP and ADP function as extracellular signals in plants: induction of the secondary messenger calcium”. Both students worked with Dr. Stan Roux of the University of Texas.
The award for best undergraduate poster went to Kimberly Wilson (Univ. North Texas) for her poster entitled “Spatial and temporal gene expression characterization in nodulation mutants of Medicago truncatula”. Kimberly (center) worked with Dr. Rebecca Dickstein (right).
2002
Grad award Winner: Anne Marie Zimeri (shown with Dr. Mel Oliver) Mentor: Dr. Richard B. Meagher
Grad award Winner: Denise J. D'Abundo (shown with Dr. Mel Oliver) Mentor: Dr. David J. Longstreth
Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation winner: Matt Keogh (shown with Dr. Caryl Chlan) Mentor: Dr. Chuck Stinemetz
2001
One award went to Jason Sterling (Univ. of Georgia) for his presentation "Identification of a galacturonosyltransferase in Arabidopsis thaliana (var. Columbia): Partial purification and a strategy to isolate the first gene encoding a pectin biosynthetic glycosyltransferase." Mentor: Dr. Debra Mohnen
The other was presented to Michael J. Wheeler (Louisiana State University– Shreveport) for his presentation "Transgenic expression of yeast casein kinase I isoform 2 (YCK2) as a means of conferring salt tolerance to cotton" Co-mentors: Stephen Banks and Dalton Gossett
The award for best undergraduate poster went to Robin Gaines (East Carolina State Univ.) for her presentation "Site-directed mutagenesis in the CP43 protein of photosystem II alters the chloride requirement for growth and oxygen evolving activity in Synechocystis 6803". Mentor: Dr. Cindy Putnam-Evans
2000
The winner of the graduate student competition was Carole Dabney-Smith (Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville) for her presentation 'Interactions between precursor proteins and artificial biiayers: implications for chloroplast protein import". Mentor: Dr. B.Bruce
The winner of the undergraduate student competition was Jennifer Millsaps (Maryville College, TN) for her presentation "Use of resolved higher plants photosystem I particles for photo-hydrogen production". Mentor: Dr. B.Bruce
Southern Section thanks the Judges for their considerable efforts in this critical function in our annual meeting. The section also wishes to express its gratitude to ASPB (national) for support of the student awards competitions. And to the potential student participants in next year's competitions, remember that both your meeting registration and banquet fees are waived. We feel that these competitions represent an excellent opportunity for students to gain valuable experience (specially oral) presenting their research in a public arena before a knowledgeable, yet friendly audience. Mentors: please encourage your students to participate in this worthy activity. It could be the beginning of great achievements in plant research!. Southern Section continues to produce quality student presentations.