Helen Miller and Edwin Glover Awards

The Payne County Audubon Society supports research and conservation through two grants named in honor of founding members Helen Miller and Edwin Glover. These grants provide up to $1000 to students at any level conducting field-based research on any native plants or animals in Oklahoma. Special consideration is given to projects that address the behavior, conservation, or natural history of birds.

Grant applications are now open.

Deadline for submission is 11:59 pm on Friday, April 4. Applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision by Friday, April 11.

To apply, please complete this form.

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Previous Award Winners

2024

Last year, Oklahoma State graduate students Dylan Cooper
and Holly Todaro (“Demographic characteristics of wintering Loggerhead Shrike populations in Oklahoma”) and Eliza Cochrane (“Effects of Mycoplasma gallisepticum on an Eastern Bluebird population in Oklahoma”) were recipients of the Helen Miller Award. The recipient of the 2024 Edwin Glover Award was OSU grad student Joe Luberson for his student on “Anthropogenic noise: effects of oil and gas drilling on the auditory performance of wild rodents in Oklahoma.”

2023

In 2023, PCAS awarded grants to three deserving students. University of Oklahoma master’s student Abigail Triemstra is studying the subtle effects of lead on passerine birds at the Tar Creek Superfund Site. Hailey Freeman, an OSU PhD student is studying the effects of the immune response, gut microbiome, and boldness behaviors on pathogen exposure in House Sparrows (Passer domesticus). OSU undergraduate student Faith England is doing a survey of Embioptera (insects commonly known as webspinners or footspinners) in Oklahoma.

2022

In 2022 PCAS was fortunate to have multiple proposals from students who proposed to study various subjects using our annual study grants. We selected Matt Broadway to receive our Edward Glover grant and Laura Hulbert to receive our Helen Miller grant. Matt is an NREM student at OSU, who proposed to study the association between forest type and diet composition of breeding Whip-poor-wills using DNA metabarcoding techniques. Laura is a student at Northeastern State University where she is working toward a degree in Fish and Wildlife. She proposed to net and band Northern Saw-whet Owls with the goal of monitoring their movements in Northeast Oklahoma.

2021

In the spring of 2021, we were delighted to award the Helen Miller Award to Victoria Roper from the OSU Department of Integrative Biology for a proposal titled Effects of a novel pathogen (Mycoplasma gallisepticum) on avian host physiology and behavior. We were similarly delighted to award the Edwin Glover Award to Alex Harman from the OSU Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology for a proposal titled Tiger Beetles: Completely carnivorous or occasional omnivores? Both Victoria and Alex are working towards earning their PhDs at Oklahoma State.

2020

2020 was a remarkable year in many ways, but we did support Teri Cocke from the OSU Department of Integrative Biology with the 2020 Edwin Glover Award for a proposal related to her graduate work, How does road-type influence native bee species richness, abundance, and mortality in roadside habitats in Oklahoma? We sadly did not have a April 2021 meeting for her to present at.

2019

On Thursday April 4th we gathered for pizza and programming at The Hideaway. We enjoyed brief presentations from the 2018 recipients of our awards and celebrated awarding the following research awards:

1. 2019 Edwin Glover Award: Emily Geest, Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University. The impact of fire on grassland butterfly communities in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
2. 2019 Helen Miller Award: Elisa Henderson, University of California, Riverside. Do humans drive hybridization? A genomic study of hummingbird species pairs.
3. 2019 Payne County Audubon Society Award: Matt Ridenour, Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University. Mechanisms of nestling growth mediated by sibling rivalry in Eastern Bluebirds.

 

2018

In 2018 we were excited to award Abbey Ramirez with the 2018 Helen Miller Award. She discussed results of her 3-year study of wintering Northern Saw-Whet Owls in Oklahoma at our April 2019 meeting. We also heard from Jared Elmore, the 2018 recipient of the Edwin Glover Award, who described the role that scent plays in helping Red-cockaded Woodpecker avoid predation by rat snakes at the same meeting.

2016

In 2016, we were pleased to award the Edwin Glover Award to Caitlin Laughlin for her proposal regarding Insectivorous bird responses to fire frequency in the Cross Timbers, and the Helen Miller Award to Corey Riding for The effects of artificial illumination on window collisions by nocturnally migrating birds. Caitlin is working toward an MS and Corey toward a PhD, both in the department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management. Both presented on their findings at our April 2017 meeting.

2015

Meelyn Pandit, Dept. of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University and recipient of the Helen Miller Award. Meelyn is pursuing his master’s degree at OSU using data on Eastern Bluebird to address The function of alarm songs in behavioral coordination. Jonathan Sullivan, Dept. of Natural Sciences, Northeastern State University, Talequah and recipient of the Edwin Glover Award. Jonathan is pursuing his master’s degree by Exploring edge effect and the impact of invasive vegetation on Snowy Plover nesting success. Many thanks to Jim Ownby for chairing the Scholarships Committee, and to all who supported PCAS in 2014!

2014

In 2014, we were pleased to support Shannon Andreoli of the OSU Department of Integrative Biology with the Edwin Glover Award for her master’s thesis study The effects of land use on the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus), its host plants, and its parasites. The 2014 Helen Miller Award was awarded to Cassondra Walker, PhD student in the OSU Department of Integrative Biology, to support her study entitled Remote sensing, modeling, and statistical analysis to investigate habitat choice by Bell’s Vireo in Oklahoma’s prarie/crosstimbers ecoregion. Shannon and Cassondra discussed their research with us at our April 2 evening program with 33 in attendance.