Society for Modeling and Theory in Population Biology

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Scott H. Williamson Award

About. Beginning in 2025, the Scott H. Williamson Award is awarded annually by the Society for Modeling and Theory in Population Biology to recognize the achievements and promise of an outstanding early-career researcher in the area of modeling and theory in population biology.

Scott Williamson (1975-2008) was an accomplished early-career researcher who worked in theoretical population genetics and evolutionary modeling. A humble, kind, and well-liked scientist, Scott made significant theory contributions to understanding the dynamics of natural selection in populations. His work employed several modeling traditions, including coalescent theory, Poisson random fields, and sequence substitution models. He also applied insights from statistical population genetics to study selection from genetic sequences in many different organisms, including Drosophila, humans, rice, and HIV. A native of Kansas, Scott received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Kansas. Shortly after starting a faculty position at Cornell University, Scott passed away from brain cancer.

2025 Winner: Anuraag Bukkuri (University of Pittsburgh)

We are very happy to announce that the winner of the inaugural Scott H. Williamson Award is Anuraag Bukkuri. Dr. Bukkuri has been instrumental in adapting and applying the G-function framework, traditionally used in evolutionary ecology, to cancer research. This approach captures the fitness of cancer cells in terms of their per capita growth rate, allowing for the simultaneous modeling of population dynamics and evolutionary strategies. He developed a stochastic implementation of cancer cell population dynamics using a birth-death-switching process allowing for the incorporation of evolutionary processes in structured populations, providing a more realistic representation of cancer cell behavior. Dr. Bukkuri's creative mathematical approaches have significantly contributed to our understanding of cancer evolution, therapeutic resistance, and the complex interplay between ecological and evolutionary dynamics in biological systems.

SMTPB thanks the award committee chair Maria Orive and committee members Andrew Clark and Katia Koelle.

Award Information

Scientific scope. SMTPB seeks to promote outstanding theoretical and modeling research in early-career scientists. This award recognizes outstanding theoretical or modeling research in any area of population biology, including demography, ecology, epidemiology, evolution, and population genetics. Nominees can be recognized for purely theoretical research or for research that involves theory and application; the recognition is given for excellence in the aspects that pertain to modeling and theory.

Eligibility. The award seeks to recognize outstanding theory researchers shortly after completion of the PhD. For the 2025 award, the official award date of the PhD must be between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024. The number of years after the PhD can be extended in the case of personal circumstances such as parental leave; such circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The nominee does not need to be a member of SMTPB at the time of nomination.

Nomination. Nominations will be requested in a call to SMTPB members. Nominations will include:

-A 2-page nomination letter written by a nominator;

-A CV of the candidate;

-Two additional recommendation letters supporting the nomination;

-Copies of 1 to 3 articles that exemplify the nominee’s most outstanding modeling & theory work and that provide the basis for the nomination.

Eligible candidates who would like to be considered for the award are encouraged to seek out a nominator (e.g. PhD/postdoc supervisor). All documents should be compiled into a single PDF document and submitted to info@smtpb.org.

Prize. The prize amount is $1000.

Process. An award committee appointed by the Board of Directors of SMTPB will select a winner from among the nominees. The committee might also choose to name one or more honorable mentions, or might choose not to make an award. Nominations will not be carried forward from one year to the next. With any questions, please contact info@smtpb.org.

The Society for Modeling and Theory in Population Biology is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.