The John H. S. Blaxter Award

Given annually for the best student poster paper presented at the Annual Larval Fish Conference.

This prestigious award honours the research contributions of Professor John H.S. Blaxter. Over a period of 40 years, John published over 140 papers and books (his first in 1953 was published in Nature), and he directed the research of approximately 20 Ph.D. students. His work, focusing on aspects of larval fish development, physiology and behaviour, has guided many of us in our own research and greatly affected our careers.

A committee was established in Spring 2004 to oversee the implementation of the Blaxter award, eligibility for which is not restricted by citizenship, nor by membership in the Section or its parent society. The Blaxter Award Committee now administers the competition and selects the winner, while the Local LFC Committee schedules the student posters. The AFS-ELHS President appoints a Chair of the judging committee, who then chooses two additional other jury members to judge entries in the competition. Winners have been selected annually since LFC2004.

The Blaxter Award is accompanied by an award certificate, a one year Affiliate Membership in the AFS-ELHS, a $300 check, and a brief description of Dr. Blaxter's contributions to early life history research.

Students are strongly encouraged to review the judging criteria and present their work at the Larval Fish Conference to compete for this prestigious award. Note that the criteria for the Blaxter Award will be a modification of those applied to judge the Sally Richardson Award.

Inquiries about the Blaxter Award, or contributions to the Award Endowment fund should be directed to Lee Fuiman and/or Don Hoss.