Awards and Honors

Special Awards

The Environmental Mutagen Society gives three special awards at the Annual Meeting.

EMS Award: Conferred annually in recognition of outstanding research contributions in the area of environmental mutagenesis.

Alexander Hollaender Award: Conferred annually in recognition of outstanding contributions in the application of the principles and techniques of environmental mutagenesis to the protection of human health.

EMS Service Award: Conferred from time to time in recognition of long-standing dedication and service to the Society.

Please nominate deserving candidates (candidates need not be EMS members). Nominations should include a cover letter that succinctly states why this candidate is deserving of this award, as well as two additional letters of support. Nominations for the EMS Award and the Hollaender Award ideally should also include the candidate's CV. Nominations can be sent any time before March 31 for the current year's meeting. Please assemble all nomination materials into a single PDF file (nameofaward-nameofnominee.pdf) and send it to EMS Headquarters.

Nominations will be acknowledged by e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within two business days, please contact EMS Headquarters.

Student Education Awards

EMS Student Education Award: Conferred in recognition of outstanding contributions to student education and mentorship.

EMS Travel Awards

Students and New Investigators are the future. EMS strives to help students and postdoctoral level investigators to establish long-term relationships that will promote career development. The EMS offers a limited number of Student and New Investigator Travel Awards to assist students and new investigators to attend and participate in the EMS Annual Meeting. Applications for Travel Awards are solicited from graduate students and new investigators during the abstract submission process. Awardees must also be members of EMS; membership can easily be attained through the EMS Membership Page. The student and new investigators are instructed to submit their CV and have their mentor submit a letter of recommendation, describing why the student is deserving of special recognition. These materials must be compiled into a single PDF (labeled nameofaward-nameofnominee.pdf) and sent to EMS Headquarters.

Alexander Hollaender Travel Award

For a student from a developing country currently enrolled in a graduate degree program in the USA or Canada.

EMS Student and New Investigator Travel Awards

To graduate students and young investigators, who are EMS members, to attend the EMS Annual Meeting and present a paper or poster. Applications are submitted along with abstract for the Annual Meeting. Refer to the meeting site for additional information. Young investigators include those who have received their doctoral degrees within the past 3 years.

FASEB/MARC Travel Awards

As many of you are aware, EMS is a member of FASEB and one of the benefits of this association is that qualified students, postdocs and faculty are eligible to apply for FASEB/MARC travel grants to attend the EMS Annual Meeting. The awards help to defray travel-related expenses (lodging, transportation, per diem) associated with meeting/conference attendance. One does not have to be a member of EMS to take advantage of this opportunity. Information on these awards can be found at FASEB/MARC Web site.

There are two types of FASEB MARC awards available:

Faculty/Students Travel Award

Each award would provide funding for one faculty member/mentor and two graduate or undergraduate students from a minority institution to participate in the EMS meeting. The faculty member/mentor member must nominate two graduate or undergraduate students who are pursuing research careers in a life sciences discipline.

Poster/Oral Presenter Travel Award

Each award would provide funding for one underrepresented minority graduate/undergraduate student or postdoctoral fellow who has been selected to give an oral or poster presentation at the EMS meeting.
Students and postdocs submitting an acceptable abstract before the deadline would be eligible to apply for funding.

Additional award pages that may be of interest include:

Visa Alert

As part of new security procedures, many visa applications are being sent to the State Department in Washington, D.C. for review by a variety of federal agencies. Due to the number of visas being processed and the heightened security concerns, this review can take as long as six to eight weeks, or longer, depending on the applicant's country of origin. Therefore, we encourage scientists intending to come to the United States to apply for their visa as early as possible and to pay attention to U.S. State Department guidance on this matter. The National Academies has a very useful Web site containing this information. The most frequent reason that visitor visas are denied is because the applicant was unable to provide enough evidence, in the opinion of the consular officer, that he or she was not intending to immigrate to the United States (per Section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act). Therefore, we encourage you to pay particular attention to State Department advice on how to deal with this type of denial.