BES2024 Student Prizes

Our student prizes are an opportunity for early-career researchers to gain recognition and support for their work.

Anne Keymer Prize for the best student talk

The prize is named in the memory of Anne Keymer for the best oral presentation by a postgraduate student at the Annual Meeting. Anne herself was one of the first winners of this previously unnamed prize, in 1981. She went on to a career of great distinction, before dying of cancer early in 1993, at the age of 36. Anne was a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Animal Ecology, and more generally was an exemplary scholar, teacher and citizen of her discipline. In naming this prize after Anne Keymer, the BES is recognising an early career ecologist who embodied, to a remarkable degree, the qualities and values we stand for.

Olivia Norfolk Prize for best student poster

Dr Olivia Norfolk was a pollination ecologist, educator and passionate advocate for the role of traditional agricultural practices in conservation. Apart from her scientific publications, Olivia was also assiduous in publishing species lists in regional journals, making museum accessions from her collections, and logging localities in databases. Her knowledge and enthusiasm in her teaching at Anglia Ruskin University, enriched by her humour and, above all, her warmth and kindness, helped to inspire new generations of undergraduates and research students to launch their own careers in ecology and conservation.

Previous winners

Click the links below to learn more about the history of these prizes and the talented students who have won in previous years.

Anne Keymer Prize Previous Winners

Olivia Norfolk (formerly Best Poster) Prize Previous Winners

Judging Student Prizes

If you are attending the BES Annual Meeting 2024 and are interested in becoming a judge for these prizes, we will be sending information about this to all confirmed delegates after the Early Bird deadline (Thursday 31 October).