SVP 2011 (Day 2): Students in the "Silver State"

The second day of SVP is usually a good one, for two reasons.  First, the morning starts off with the Romer Prize Session talks, where original predoctoral student research is selected for presentation because of its scientific value and the high quality of the written abstract.  While there were only six talks in the session this year, I think the competition is still going to be tough, and I can't wait to see who will be taking home the prize.

The second reason day two is usually a good one is because of the Student Roundtable Forum and Reprint Exchange. It's always a great chance for students to network and talk with professionals in the field of paleontology on a wide variety of subjects.  This year was no exception, and I'd like to thank all of the individuals who lent their time and talents to helping all of the students and post-docs.  I'd also like to thank everyone that donated their reprint collections to the exchange.  I noticed it took everyone a lot longer to move through the line this year, which indicated to me that there were a lot of good papers and journals out there, and students were having a hard time choosing.

Dr. John Merck talks to a group of enthralled students about graduate school opportunities at the Student Roundtable Forum. 

Another big part of the evening is the student raffel.  The SVP Student and Post-doctoral Liaison Committee spends the first two days of the conference trying to sell as many raffel tickets as they can, raising money for the Vertebrate Paleontology Education and Research Fund.  With each ticket purchased, a student has the chance to win a year long, donated memberships to SVP.  A lot of these tickets are purchased by individuals who are not students, but generously donate their tickets to students so that everyone can have a chance at the free memberships.  But thanks to the exceptional generosity of some of the professors, researchers, and professional paleontologists in the crowd, this year we were able to give away 13 donated memberships instead of the planned two, as well as a ton of other door prizes!  All in all, SVP students were able to raise over $1600 for the Education and Research Fund, and over $400 for the Japan Fossil Recovery Program.  Thank you to everyone that bought a ticket, made a donation, or came to support the evenings events.  None of it would be possible without you.  And if you would like to make an additional donation to either, follow the links embedded in their names above (I am still working to obtain a link for the Japan Fossil Recovery Program, but as soon as I have it, I will add it above).

I managed to squeeze in a few talks during the day, but I'll spare you my long winded breakdowns.  Especially since the official SVP Twitter feed has been doing a great job of breaking them down in 140 characters or less.  You can follow them @SVP_vertpaleo, and look for the hashtag #2011SVP to see what everyone is saying about this year's annual meeting.

Referenced Talks


Romer Prize Session. Presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Thursday, 03 November, 2011, from 8:00-9:30AM.