Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Awards

Each year the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention awards money to students and postdoctoral fellows to assist them with their travel expenses. Students/postdoctoral fellows who have an abstract that is accepted for presentation and present the abstract during the meeting, as either a platform or poster presentation, are eligible for a Travel Award of $500. Applicants should be enrolled in a program leading to a graduate degree in a field of study related to teratology or should be postdoctoral fellows in such a field and should attend the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention Annual Meeting. Students/postdoctoral fellows who apply for a Travel Award must be members of the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention at the time of the 2011 Meeting. The applicants will be instructed to have their mentor submit a letter of recommendation; without this they are not eligible to be considered for a Travel Award.

The Award Application Submission deadline is February 14, 2011.

Travel Award Application Information

Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention Student Membership

Requirements for Student membership consist of sponsorship by a member of the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention and the signature of the applicant’s Major Professor whose signature verifies that the applicant is a student or postdoctoral fellow in good standing and is working in the field of teratology. The Major Professor also will provide the expected date of graduation or fulfillment of fellowship. Student members are requested to apply for Regular or Associate membership status at the first Annual Meeting of the Society after they graduate or after fulfillment of their postdoctoral fellowship. Those students who choose not to apply for Regular or Associate membership status by the time of the succeeding Annual Meeting will have their membership inactivated. For information about applying for membership please visit the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention Web site.

Letter of Application

A letter from your Mentor is required for all Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Travel Awards and should be sent to Society Headquarters at bdrp@birthdefectsresearch.org. The letter should include the following information:

• a specific statement to confirm you are currently enrolled at the sponsoring institution or still in the formal training phase of your education
• a brief description of the curriculum of study and/or your research program
• an assessment of the qualities that would single you out for recognition by the Teratology Society
• optionally, additional introduction, methods, results, discussion, and/or two pages of illustrative materials

Additional Student and Postdoctoral Award Opportunities

The Wilson Presentation Awards are selected for the two best presentations in the student platform competition.

The James C. Bradford Memorial Award is presented by Middle Atlantic Reproduction and Teratology Association (MARTA) to the student selected as the best paper in the poster competition.

The Marie W. Taubeneck Award recognizes a student or young investigator for scholarship in teratology and service to the Society.

Award Notes
If you apply for a Wilson Presentation Award and are not selected as a finalist, you can be considered for the James C. Bradford Memorial Award by selecting "platform or poster" for your presentation type.