Awards Committee Reports and Items of Interest
Western Division Award Nominations
Every year we solicit nominations to honour individuals or groups who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the American Fisheries Society, to our profession, and to fisheries research, conservation and management. This is your opportunity to nominate and honor someone you have professionally admired and ensure that your peers receive the recognition they deserve. Please take a moment and think about people you know that meet the Division's award criteria and should be recognized for their significant contributions and accomplishments.
The Division has five prestigious awards for individual and group achievements, some of which are given to non-AFS members. Please consider a nomination within the following categories:
Award of Excellence. This is the most prestigious award offered by the Western Division and it is intended to recognize sustained professional excellence. It is given annually to an AFS member who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and exceptional competence in fishery resource applications through monumental works, new methodologies, or multiple successful contributions that benefit our resources and profession. Successful nominees have usually excelled in research or management programs at the regional, national, or international levels. Other examples include fresh, innovative approaches to improving our understanding of aquatic resources, and imaginative and successful programs in education at any level of teaching.
Award of Merit. This award is given to an AFS member(s) who has made a regionally significant and worthy contribution to our Division, our profession, or our fishery resources.
Award of Special Recognition. This award is given to an individual or to an entity (AFS member or non-member) making a significant contribution to the development and success of the Western Division.
Robert Borovicka Conservation Achievement Award. This award is given annually to an individual (AFS member or non-member) who has significantly contributed to fishery conservation within the Division. The individual may be a non-member of AFS.
Conservation Achievement Award. This award is typically given to an entity (such as an agency, tribe, or organization) that has demonstrated a significant contribution to the conservation of fishery resources within the Division.
In addition to the awards described above, the Division also awards the WDAFS Outstanding Chapter Award and the WDAFS Riparian Challenge Awards.
By Category
Western Division Grant Proposals
The Western Division annually funds one or more grant proposals received from Division Chapters, Subunits and other fisheries-related groups. The project proposals should be fisheries related. Proposal are reviewed by the Division EXCOM (Division officers plus Chapter presidents) at annual meetings or mid-year business meetings and awarded as budgets allow. These typically modest grants (usually less than $2,500) may be just the thing to get a project off the ground or to complement funding from other sources. For more information on WDAFS grants and application procedures, see Western Division Grant Guidelines.
The Western Division of the American Fisheries Society is pleased to announce that applications for the Eugene Maughan graduate-level student scholarships are now being solicited. This scholarship program provides up to $3,000 annually in scholarships to master’s or doctoral students in the general area of fisheries science with one to three awards to individual students.
Beginning in 2002, the Sustainable Fisheries Foundation established the William Trachtenberg Memorial Scholarship Fund, which augments the Western Division scholarship program. This fund provides an additional $600 annually to a graduate-level student conducting studies on fisheries sustainability.
Scholarship recipients are listed in the Student Awards page.