The AOS’s James G. Cooper Early Professional Award and the Ned K. Johnson Early Investigator Award recognize outstanding and promising work by researchers early in their careers. Our 2026 James G. Cooper Award winners are Devon DeRaad and Fengyi Guo. This year, the AOS awarded the Ned K. Johnson Award to Olivia M. Smith.
It is widely known that roads and motorized vehicle traffic threaten wildlife populations on a global scale. Millions of birds die on roads each year. Traffic also increases stress, alters behavior, and interferes with communication, reproduction, foraging, and predator avoidance.
When I started studying Dryobates borealis (Red-cockaded Woodpecker), I expected that one of the biggest challenges families faced would be competition at high population densities. After all, as conservation efforts helped these birds rebound across the Southeastern United States, many sites saw more groups packed into the same landscape than ever before.
“Over the past few years, the AOS has become my primary scientific society and it has played a big role in my professional growth by providing me with a lot of skills as well as a forum to make meaningful contributions.”
