PRIZES 2013 – AZOREAN BIODIVERSITY GROUP (CITA-A)
- October 18th, 2013
- Biodiversity
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PRIZES 2013 – AZOREAN BIODIVERSITY GROUP (CITA-A)
The Azorean Biodiversity Group initiated last year the “Azorean Biodiversity Group Prizes” that aim to highlight the excellence in research of the members of the group and give some visibility to their research. This year the prizes will include some of the themes of the last year and add new ones.
“The Most Productive Young Researcher – Ph.D Student 2013” Award – Silvia Calvo Aranda
(This prize will be awarded every two years to the most productive young researcher of the ABG Group, a Post-Doc and Ph.D. student interchangeably)
In 2013 the Prize goes for the most productive (in the last three years) of the current Ph.D. students, Silvia Calvo Aranda (http://www.gba.uac.pt/quem/ver.php?id=24).
Silvia Calvo Aranda, a Spanish young researcher, was the most productive young Ph.D. researcher of the ABG Group with about 13 publications in the period 2009-2013, eight of which ISI papers (four of which as leading author). Two additional papers as leading author are currently under evaluation. She is conducting her research in “Bryophyte diversity patterns in the Macaronesian region” under the supervision of Prof. Jorge Lobo (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN), Madrid, Spain) and Prof. Rosalina Gabriel and Prof. Paulo A. V. Borges from University of Azores (GBA, CITA-A). One of her publications was recently published in the leading ecological Journal Global Ecology and Biogeography (with an impact factor of 7.22).
“BALA –Biodiversity of Arthropods from Laurisilva of Azores 2013” Award – Joaquin Hortal (http://jhortal.com/)
(This prize will be awarded every year to the most influent researcher generating data or analyses in the BALA Project)
Joaquin Hortal started his independent scientific career in Azores as a Post-Doc in 2005 and in the following years participated in six of the ten Most Cited papers of the ABG (http://www.gba.uac.pt/noticias/ver.php?id=133). He also leaded the most cited paper of ABG (*), published in 2006 in Journal of Animal Ecology, and later in 2009 selected for the first number of Methods in Ecology and Evolution (Virtual Issue) as an influential paper. Joaquin Hortal is currently a researcher in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Depto. Biogeografía y Cambio Global (MNCN), Madrid, Spain.
(*) Hortal, J., Borges, P.A.V. & Gaspar, C. (2006). Evaluating the performance of species richness estimators: Sensitivity to sample grain size. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75: 274-287.
“The Events 2013” Award – Isabel Amorim, Ana Moura Arroz and Rosalina Gabriel
(This prize will be awarded every year to the investigator(s) that leaded an event of high relevance promoting the visibility of ABG)
Isabel Amorim, Ana Moura Arroz and Rosalina Gabriel leaded and implemented outreach activities to raise awareness towards endemic insects of the Azores. Those initiatives, that involved many of the GBA members, included an unprecedented urban intervention in the Azores, “Azoreans millions of years ago" and the Facebook initiative “Chama-lhe Nomes” (https://www.facebook.com/Chama.lhe.Nomes).
Unique macro photographs of insects were placed in 12 buildings in the main arteries of Angra do Heroísmo, in order to acquaint the Azorean one unique natural heritage (see more at http://cita.angra.uac.pt/ficheiros/noticias/1364834635.pdf). “Azoreans millions of years ago" resulted from collaboration between experts in evolutionary biology, entomology, social psychology, communication design and extreme macro photography of Azorean Biodiversity Group (CITA-A, GBA) and funding and supported from various partner institutions : FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology [Proj. PTDC/BIA-BEC/104571/2008] Association "The Montanheiros" ART - Regional Tourism Association, Regional Secretary of Natural Resources, Municipality of Angra do Heroismo.
The photos were performed by Javier Torrent (http://500px.com/Javier_Torrent) and communication design was led by Ana Moura Arroz in a team that also includes Rita São Marcos, Rosalina Gabriel, Isabel Amorim, Paulo Silva and Paulo A. V. Borges (the Coordinator of the FCT Project).