An award for the best presentation by a student at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers has been presented by the BSG since 1987.  Beginning in 2001, separate awards were established for PhD students and for Undergraduate/Masters students.  The criteria used to evaluate presentations include the scientific merit of the research, the soundness of the methods, analyses, conclusions, and the clarity and caliber of the presentation. Each student is judged by a panel of BSG faculty. No competition was held in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancellation of the in-person AAG meeting.

2022
Undergrad/Masters: Jared Crain (University of Tennessee) - "Classifying microscopic charcoal morphology to improve understanding of fire history in sediment records from neotropical lakes

PhD: Julie Edwards (University of Arizona) - "Multiple climate signals in quantitative wood anatomical measurements of Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine""

2021
Undergrad/Masters: Tali Hamilton (Texas Tech) - "The effects of grass invasion and fire severity on Acacia koa regeneration in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park"

PhD: Jonathan Kleinman (University of Alabama) - "Floristic indicators of ecosystem recovery after wind, logging, and fire in a Pinus woodland"

2019
Undergrad/Masters: Connor Stephens (Clark University) - "Characterizing the impact of federal and private land ownership on post high-severity wildfire forest regeneration in the mixed conifer forest of the Sierra Nevada, California"

PhD: Sisimac Duchicela (University of Texas at Austin) - "Effects of interacting anthropogenic stressors on paramo ecosystems in the Andes"

2018
Undergrad/Masters: Joseph Andreoli (University of Florida) - "Predicting the potential geographic distributions of non-native fishes in Florida with climate change"

PhD: Robert Andrus (University of Colorado - Boulder) - "Moisture availability limits subalpine tree establishment"

2017
Undergrad/Masters: Tyler Prince (Brock University) - "Postglacial reconstruction of fire history from a small lake in southwest Yukon Territory using sedimentary charcoal and pollen"

PhD: Danielle Haskett (University of Georgia) - "Climate and environmental change in the Colorado Rocky Mountains during the late Quaternary: An analogue for a warm future"

2016
PhD: Katherine Glover (Univ. of California at Los Angeles) - "A 90,000-year fire history from the San Bernardino Mountains, Southern California"

PhD: Jeremy Johnson (Texas A&M) - "Landscape resistance and forest response to Pleistocene glaciation in Alaska"

2015
Undergrad/Masters: Tera del Priore (Univ of Colorado-Denver) - "4000 years of environmental change in central Colorado: a paleoecological perspective"

PhD: Lukas Harris (Penn State University) - "Drivers of fire severity in an old growth mixed conifer forest, Yosemite National Park, California"

2014
Undergrad/Masters: Christopher Petruccelli (University of Missouri) - "Multi-scale assessment of climate and slope aspect influences on upper treeline dynamics in the Rocky Mountains, U.S.A."

PhD: Erik Johanson (University of Tennessee) - "Reconstructing late Holocene paleoenvironments and human-environment interactions from neotropical lake sediments in southern Pacific, Costa Rica"

2013
Undergrad/Masters: Thomas Christiansen (University of Texas-Austin) - “Structural disturbance classes: Explicitly linking field- and satellite-derived measurements for improved disturbance detection and quantification”

PhD: Isaac Park (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) - “Flowering phenology across North America”

2012
Undergrad/Masters: Rebecca Klauk (Edinboro University) - “Documenting vegetation differences between two sites at Howard Falls Land Trust in northwestern PA using a nested sampling method”

PhD: Sarah Haas (University of North Carolina - Charlotte) - “Forest species diversity reduces disease risk in a generalist pathogen invasion”

2011
Undergrad/Masters: Eric Creeden (University of Idaho) - “Regional analysis of climate and weather conditions related to outbreaks of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests of the western USA”

PhD: Tomas Vaclavik (University of North Carolina - Charlotte) - “Accounting for multi-scale spatial autocorrelation improves performance of invasive species distribution modeling”

2010
Undergrad/Masters: Matthew Kwit (Northern Illinois University) - “Sugar maple leaf phenology, light levels, carbon gain, and regeneration at and north of the current range limit”

PhD: Grant Elliott (University of Minnesota) - “Multi-scale influences of climate on upper treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient in the Rocky Mountains, USA”

2009
Poster: Maria Caffrey (University of Tennessee) “A reconstruction of coastal paleoenvironmental change from Laguna Saladilla, Dominican Republic”

Undergrad/Masters: Joshua Wixom (West Virginia University) - “Climatic, edaphic, and topographic influences on the radial growth of eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), Smoke Hole Canyon, West Virginia”

PhD: Evan Larson (University of Minnesota) - “The relative roles of climate and fire suppression in driving whitebark pine forest structure”

2008
Poster: Anne Trainor (University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill) - “Influence of Landscape Characteristics on Long Distance Dispersal Events for Red-cockaded Woodpecker"

Undergrad/Masters: Joanne Stewart (University of Denver) - “Distribution and differential habitat use of bats along a prairie riparian corridor in Eastern Montana ”

PhD: Mathew Valente (University of Tennessee-Knoxville) - “Genetic Variation, Diversity, and Phylogeography of the Southeastern US - Mexico Cloudforest Disjunct Vine, Schisandra glabra (Brickell) Rheder (Schisandraceae)”

2007

Poster: Neil Toth (Indiana State University) - “Climate reconstruction from eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis ) in central Indiana”

Undergrad/Masters: Chad Yost (St. Cloud State University) - “Diagnostic phytolith evidence for the presence and abundance of wild rice (Zizania sp.) from central Minnesota lake sediments ”

PhD: Scott Markwith (University of Georgia) - “Multi-scale analysis of Hymenocallis coronaria genetic diversity, genetic structure, and gene movement under the influence of unidirectional stream flow”

PhD: Ryan Danby (University of Alberta) - “Plant physiology influences landscape pattern at subarctic alpine treeline”

2006
Undergrad/Masters: Chelsea Teale (Syracuse University) - “Holey Ground: The distribution and status of earthworm populations in Yukon Territory, Canada”

PhD: Kevin Anchukaitis (University of Arizona) - “Calibrating annual isotope chronologies in Ocotea tenera (Lauraceae) from the Monteverde Cloud Forest”

2005
Honorable Mention (UG/MS): Zachary Taylor (University of Tennessee) - “Environmental history at Laguna Yaguarú , Bolivia: Evidence from pollen, stable carbon isotopes, and an embedded mineral facies”

Honorable Mention (UG/MS): Evan Larson (University of Tennessee) - “Variations in fire regimes of whitebark pine ( Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) Forests in the Lolo National Forest, Montana, USA”

Undergrad/Masters: Crystal Kolden (University of Nevada-Reno) - “Climatic variability, fuel conditions, and prescribed fire: Impacts and obstacles”

Honorable Mention (PhD): Rebecca Rowe (University of Chicago) “Changes in community composition over time: response to changes in land use or climate?”

PhD: Jason Sibold (University of ?) “Influences of Pacific (ENSO and PDO) and Atlantic (AMO) Ocean climate drivers on subalpine zone fire occurrence in the Colorado Front Range”

2004
Honorable Mention (UG/MS): Peter Gogol (University of Kansas) - “Association of soil moisture and leaf litter moisture with nymphal deer tick ( Ixodes scapularis Say) activity”

Undergrad/Masters: Paul Reyerson (St. Cloud State University) - “Phytolith-based reconstructions of Last Glacial Maximum paleograssland vegetation densities in Washington State”

Honorable Mention (PhD): Shelley Rayback (University of British Columbia) - “Reconstructing summer temperature for Hot Weather Creek and Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada”

Honorable Mention (PhD): Martin Arford (University of Tennessee - Knoxivlle) - “A multi-site investigation of Holocene paleoenvironments in northwestern Costa Rica”

PhD: Jennifer Marlon (University of Oregon) - “A meta-analysis of charcoal-based fire history records from the northwestern United States”

2003
Undergrad/Masters: Chad Lane (University of Tennessee - Knoxville) - “Stable carbon isotopes in sediments as indicators of prehistoric forest clearance in Costa Rica”

PhD: Rachel Kurtz (Pennsylvania State University) - “Impacts of land use change on terrestrial carbon in the Eastern United States, 1972-2000”

2002
Undergrad/Masters: Jacqueline Smith (University of Arizona) - “Predicting montane community distribution using classification tree analysis for southern Arizona”

PhD: Rosemary Sherriff (University of Colorado-Boulder) - “Fire history at high elevation in the Colorado Front Range”

2001
Honorable Mention: James Speer (University of Tennessee at Knoxville) - “Reconstructing southern Appalachian oak-mast history using dendrochronology”

Honorable Mention: Andrea Brunelle-Daines (University of Oregon) - “Holocene relationships between fire, climate and vegetation as recorded from four northern Rocky Mountain sites”

Undergrad/Masters: Amy Bloom (University of Utah) - “Diatoms in eastern Sierra Nevada lake sediments: Indicators of past climate and environmental change”

Ph.D.: Jonathan Price (University of California at Davis) - “The Hawaiian flora as a model for relating evolutionary processes to spatial patterns of biodiversity”

2000
Mike Pisaric (Queens University) - “Holocene treeline changes in northern British Columbia from pollen and stomates”

1999
Susy Svatek Ziegler (University of Wisconsin-Madison) - “Natural disturbance regime of hemlock-hardwood forests in Adirondack Park”

1998
Laurie Grigg (Univ. of Oregon) - “Late-glacial climate and vegetation changes in Oregon”

1997
Amy Richert (University of Nebraska) - “Spatial analysis of whooping crane habitat in Nebraska”

1996
Karen Arabas (Pennsylvania State University) - “Results of prescribed fire on eastern serpentine barrens forests”

1995
Katrina Moser (McMaster University) - “A paleolimnological investigation of forest fires in northern Alberta, Canada”

Kat Mulqueen (Montana State University) - “Breeding bird populations in logged and unlogged forest stands in southwestern Montana”

1994
Philip Keating (University of Colorado-Boulder) - “Biogeography and disturbance ecology of upper montane ecosystems in the southern Ecuadorian Andes”

1993
Scott Mensing (University of California at Berkeley) -  "Pre-mission invasion of Erodium cicutarium in California"

1992
Joy Nystrom Mast (University of Colorado-Boulder) - “A dendrochronological method of studying tree mortality patterns”

1991
Mark Cowell (University of Georgia) - “Environmental gradients in secondary forests of the Georgia piedmont”

1990
Keith Hadley (University of Colorado-Boulder) - “Stand response to repeated insect disturbance in the montane forests of Rocky Mountain National Park”

1989
Edward Harvey (University of California at Santa Barbara) - “Spatial pattern of inter-island plant and animal colonization in the Galapagos archipelago”

Robert van deHoek (California State - Northridge) - “The California Islands: Alien plants and theory of island biogeography”

1988
Barbara Holzman (University of California at Los Angeles) - “Recovery of a desert creosote community after fifty years of disturbance”

1987
William Baker (University of Wisconsin-Madison) - "Landscape ecology and nature reserve design in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota"