The AOS James G. Cooper Early Professional Award recognizes early-career researchers for their outstanding contributions in any field of ornithology. It consists of a certificate, $1,500 honorarium, gratis registration to attend the annual meeting. Awardees are also invited to give a plenary at the annual meeting. The award is named in honor of James G. Cooper, a pioneering naturalist and ornithologist in the western regions of North America.
Candidates may nominate themselves for the award, be nominated by another member(s) of AOS, or be added to the slate of candidates by the Early Professional Awards Committee, which selects the annual awardees. Selection will be based on the committee’s evaluation of the candidate’s short-format CV and a mini-paper written by the candidate about their own research (see below). The successful nominee will excel in research and show distinct promise for leadership in ornithology within and beyond North America. All award nominees are expected to have a high standard of ethical and social behavior that is strongly aligned with the AOS Code of Conduct & Ethics.
In addition, they must:
- Be a current member of AOS.
- The nominee’s terminal degree (Master’s or Ph.D.) must have been received (or be anticipated) anytime between 2022–2025. Individuals who received their terminal degree in 2021 are also eligible in cases of parental leave.
- Have not received the award previously.
Submit a Nomination
Nominations for the AOS Early Professional Awards are open.
Nominations must be submitted through our online Member Portal. Nomination Deadline: 15 December 2024.*
*Please note the early deadline of 15 November for the Early Professional Awards if you are nominating someone other than yourself. This allows the committee time to reach out to those individuals to confirm their acceptance of the nomination and provide the nominee time to submit their completed information ahead of the 15 December deadline.
The page linked above will direct you to a login screen. If you have previously created an account in our Member Portal, enter your user name and password. After logging in, you will be redirected to the James G. Cooper nomination page.
- If you have not previously created an account, click Register Now on the lower right to set up your profile.
To nominate yourself for the Cooper Award, you will need to upload 1) a mini-paper describing your research, and 2) a current CV.
Guidelines for Mini-Paper of Candidate’s Research
The mini-paper should be written by the candidate and should focus on the candidate’s own research. It should address selected aspects of the candidate’s past, present, or future research, similar to a research statement for a typical faculty-job application. It should contain a title, abstract, and main body of text, not to exceed 1,500 words. The main body of text can be divided into subsections as the candidate sees fit. Literature-cited, tables, figures, and captions are not included in the word count, but figures and tables are limited to 4 total. The file should be in Word or PDF format.
Previous Winners of the Cooper Award
2024 Sheela P. Turbek & Jessie L. Williamson
2023 Glaucia Del-Rio
2022 Stepfanie M. Aguillon
2021 Ana Gonzalez & Benjamin Van Doren
2020 Nick Mason
2019 Karan Odom and Kyle Horton
2018 Kristen Covino
2017 Nancy Chen and Riccardo Ton
2016 Daniel Baldassarre and Peter Hosner
2015 Jared Wolfe and Elizabeth Gow
2014 Conor Taff and Mary Caswell Stoddard
2013 Christina Riehl and Henry Streby
2012 Luciano Naka and Morgan Tingley
2011 Matthew Carling and Karl Berg
2010 Zachary Cheviron, with finalists Andrea Townsend and Daniel Barton
2009 Jamie Cornelius, with finalists Karie Decker and Eben Paxton