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CCS Student Awards

CCS provides a number of awards geared towards graduate students and post-docs (who are current CCS members). Most awards are tied to CO3, and award deadlines tend to be a few months before the conference each year. Please make sure to check the eligibility requirements and application deadlines for each award, linked below.

CCS also supports the annual Research Award and an Early Career Award.

Application Procedures

CCS logo

Please note that there have been some changes to our awards from past years! You now need to apply for all awards, including Best Poster and Best Talk, and the Ron Weisman Award is now a travel award. See details below. The application deadline for all CCS student awards is December 12, 2025. The deadline for the Stan Kuczaj Memorial Travel Grant is February 28, 2025.


The Best Talk, Best Poster, and Travel Awards all require submitting a long abstract with your application. We have posted two sample long abstracts as a guide: Sample 1, Sample 2.

Ron Weisman Travel Award

Ron Weisman

The Ron Weisman award is named in honor of one of the society’s founding members. From 2013 to 2024, it was given for a graduate student talk. From 2025, it will be given as a travel award for a student or post-doctoral member of CCS travelling to CO3. The award comes with a $300 USD prize, sponsored by CCS. Applications will be reviewed by the CCS Awards Committee, and the choice of a winner will be based on the merit of the applicant's abstract and CV.

The application for the award is combined with the Psychonomic Society Travel Award (you may not receive both awards in the same year). Application instructions are here. The deadline to apply for this award is December 12, 2025.

Past Awardees
Awardees for Travel Award

2025 - Prateek Sahu, University of Alberta (Canada)

Awardees for Outstanding Student Presentation (before 2025)

2024 - Joseph McKeon, Georgia State University (USA)

2023 - Andrés Camacho-Alpízar, University of Alberta (Canada)

2022 - Bernhard Wagner, Acoustics Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria)

[No awards were given in 2020-2021]

2019 - Malin Lilley, University of Southern Mississippi (USA)

2018 - Danielle Panoz-Brown, Indiana University (USA)

2017 - Alexis Breen, University of St Andrews (United Kingdom)

2016 - Nicole Guitar, University of Western Ontario (Canada)

2015 - Allison Hahn, University of Alberta (Canada)

2014 - Allison Hahn, University of Alberta (Canada) and Muhammad Qadri, Tufts University (USA)

2013 - Muhammad Qadri, Tufts University (USA)

Best Graduate Student Publication Award

publication

This award is for the best peer-reviewed publication in the past year by a graduate student CCS member (as first author), on any topic within comparative cognition. The award comes with a $300 USD prize, supported by the Psychonomic Society and CCS.

Application instructions are here. The deadline to apply for this award is December 12, 2025.

Past Awardees

2025 - Rael Sammeroff, Emory University (USA)

Sammeroff, R., Hampton, R.R., (2025). Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) rank lists using multiple cognitive mechanisms simultaneously. Journal of Comparative Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000405

2024 - Cassandra Sheridan, Indiana University (USA)

Sheridan, C. L., Lang, S., Knappenberger, M., Albers, C., Loper, R., Tillett, B., Sanchez, J., Wilcox, A., Harrison, T., Panoz-Brown, D., & Crystal, J. D. (2024). Replay of incidentally encoded episodic memories in the rat. Current Biology, 34, 641–647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.043

2023 - Connor Lambert, University of Alberta (Canada)

Lambert, C. T., Sahu, P. K., Sturdy, C. B., & Guillette, L. M. (2022). Among-individual differences in auditory and physical cognitive abilities in zebra finches. Learning & Behavior, 50, 389-404. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13420-022-00520-w

2022 - Connor Lambert, University of Alberta (Canada)

Lambert, C. T., & Guillette, L. M. (2021). The impact of environmental and social factors on learning abilities: a meta‐analysis. Biological Reviews, 96(6), 2871-2889. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12783


Stan Kuczaj Memorial Travel Grant

Stan Kuczaj

The Stan Kuczaj Memorial Travel Award is administered in memory of Dr. Stan Kuczaj, who was a leader in the study of comparative animal cognition, particularly within marine mammals. Stan believed in pursuing challenging topics in human and animal cognition with rigor, candor, and the spirit of intellectual adventure. The award is for a graduate student travelling to CO3, and includes a $500 USD prize, sponsored by the foundation.
For details, please see the grant advertisement and application form, and see the Stan Kuczaj Fund website.

Past Awardees

2025 – Oviya Mohan, University of Rochester (USA), Siyan Xiong, Indiana University (USA)

2024 – Sasha Winkler, University of California Los Angeles (USA), Hannah Burrows, Queen's University (Canada)

2023 – Andrés Camacho-Alpízar, University of Alberta (Canada), Madeline Pelgrim, Brown University (USA)

2022 – Rachel Hamrock, Oklahoma State University (USA), Jordyn Truax, Oakland University (USA), & Victoria O’Connor Oakland University (USA)

2021 – Sarah Krichbaum, Auburn University (USA)

[No award was given in 2020]

2019 – Olivia Tomeo, Georgia State University (USA) and Anastasiya Kobrina, University at Buffalo SUNY (USA)

2018 – Julia Espinosa, University of Toronto (Canada) and Amber de Vere, University of Southern Mississippi (USA)

2017 – Malin Lilley, University of Southern Mississippi (USA) and Brielle James, Georgia State University (USA)


Best Talk (sponsored by the Psychonomic Society)

Best talk
This award is for the best talk by a current graduate student. Students present 5-minute talks in a special session. Talks are judged by the Awards Committee. The award comes with $300 USD provided by the Psychonomic Society.

Application instructions are here.The deadline to apply for this award is December 12, 2025.

Past Awardees

2025 – Julia Self, University of Alberta (Canada)

2024 – Gokulan Nagabaskaran, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada)

2023 - Jeroen Zewald, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Austria)

2022 - Bernhard Wagner, Acoustics Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria)

[No awards were given in 2020-2021]


Best Poster (sponsored by the Psychonomic Society)

Best poster
This award is for the best poster by a current graduate student. Posters will be judged by the Awards Committee.The award comes with $300 USD provided by the Psychonomic Society.

Application instructions are here.The deadline to apply for this award is December 12, 2025.

Past Awardees

2025 – Britney Sekulovski, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada)

2024 – Daniel Peng, University of Kentucky (USA)

2023 – Gokulan Nagabaskaran, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada)

2022 – Gokulan Nagabaskaran, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada)

[No awards were given in 2020-2021]

2019 – Brielle James, Georgia State University (USA)


Travel Award (sponsored by the Psychonomic Society)

Travel award
This award is to help a graduate student or post-doc to travel to CO3. The award comes with $300 USD provided by the Psychonomic Society. Applications will be reviewed by the CCS Awards Committee, and the choice of a winner will be based on the merit of the applicant's abstract and CV.

The application for the award is combined with the Ron Weisman Travel Award (you may not receive both awards in the same year). Instructions are here.The deadline to apply for this award is December 12, 2025.
Past Awardees

2025 – Océane Ferreira, University of Bern (Switzerland)

2024 – Dr. Victor Ajuwon, University of Cambridge (UK)

2023 – Plotine Jardat, Université de Tours (France)