Eligibility Criteria
Are you an undergraduate or graduate student eager to share your research? If you’re presenting a poster in the AGRO Division at the ACS 2025 Fall Meeting, you’re eligible to apply for our Student Travel Awards!
Scope of Scientific Work
We welcome submissions in the following areas:
- Agrochemicals: synthetic and biopesticides, pheromones, plant-incorporated protectants, veterinary pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and biological nitrification inhibitors, plant growth regulators, disinfectants, adjuvants and nanomaterials.
- Biotechnology-derived crops of all types.
- Public health protection including crop, livestock, aquaculture, and wildlife protection.
- Products from commodities and byproducts including biofuels and bioproducts.
- Applications of environmental chemistry, engineering, toxicology, exposure assessment, risk characterization, risk management, and science policy in agrochemicals, biotechnology, and related fields.
Award Description
- Recognition Awaits: Approximately 15 to 18 awardees will be selected from the applicant pool.
- Stay Informed: Applicants will be notified of their status in May 2025.
- Financial Support: Each awardee will receive up to $1000 for travel and meeting expenses for the Fall ACS Meeting in Washington.
- Compete for additional Prizes: Poster presentations will be judged and first, second and third place winners will receive an additional cash award!
- Spotlight on You: Awardees will be highlighted in the Picogram.
- Celebrate Your Success: The winning posters will be announced at the AGRO Social Hour.
Deadline to Apply
March 31, 2025
Don’t miss out on this chance to shine!
Submit Materials Via On-Line Form Before the Deadline
- Confirmation Email: A copy of the email from ACS confirming your abstract was successfully submitted to a poster session of your choice in the AGRO Division, ACS 2025 Fall Meeting program (https://maps.acs.org/)
- Extended abstract: A maximum 2 page extended abstract describing the applicants research and your research and its impact on issues relevant to AGRO. (See the Education Award website for an example.)
- Nomination Letter: A short letter of nomination you’re your faculty advisor verifying your current enrollment.
- Headshot Photo: for public release.
Sponsored by
For questions, contact Education Award Chairs:
Aaron Gross, Virginia Tech and Sara Whiting, Bayer Crop Science
Previous Winners
2024 Poster competition winners
- First Place: Sarah McComic, University of Florida
- Second Place: David Mualen, Ohio State University
- Third Place: Flinn O’Hara, University of Florida
2023 Poster competition winners
- First Place: Flinn O’Hara, University of Florida
- Second Place: Xixian Ng University of Nebraska
- Third Place – (tie)
Bashiru Adams, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya
Brandon Bickley, Virginia Tech
2022 Poster competition winners
- 1st Prize – Juliet Ochola, Disruption of the chemical signaling between potato and cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis. North Carolina State University
- Co-2nd Prize – Flinn O’Hara, Optimization of inward rectifier potassium channel inhibitors to prevent hemipteran feeding. Louisiana State University Oluwatosin Popoola, 3D-printed nanocomposite for smart antimicrobial food packaging. Clarkson University
- 3rd Prize – Rui Chen, Characterization of functional interactions between K+ flux mechanisms that drive insect neural function. Louisiana State University
2021 Poster Competition Winners
- 1st Prize – Na Xie, Resistance to insecticides with different modes of action in Drosophila melanogaster with Rdl mutation in GABAA receptors: More than just cyclodienes and phenylpyrazoles. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Aaron Gross
- 2nd Prize – Morgan Roth, Electroantennography to measure small hive beetle (Aethina tumida) responses to established attractant and repellent molecules. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Aaron Gross - 3rd Prize – Flinn O’Hara, Toxicity and changes to feeding behavior of Aphis gossypii after exposure to commercial insecticides. Louisiana State University, Daniel Swale
2020 Poster Competition Winners
- 1st Prize – Na Xie, Synergism of fipronil, lindane and dieldrin by the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist pilocarpine in Drosophila melanogaster. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Aaron Gross
- 2nd Prize – Sarah McComic, Reduced susceptibility and neural sensitivity to pyrethroids in the absence of the kdr genotype. Louisiana State University, Daniel Swale
- Co-3rd Prize Winners
- Rui Chen, Enhancing the potency of GABAergic insecticides through chemical and genetic inhibition of K+/Cl cotransporter. Louisiana State University, Daniel Swale
- Felipe Andreazza, Mechanism of transfluthrin repellency in Aedes aegypti. Michigan State University, Ke Dong
2019 Poster Competition Winners
- 1st Prize – Christopher Fellows, Toxicological relevance of potassium ion channels to honeybee immune health, Louisiana State University, Daniel Swale
- 2nd Prize – Shiyao Jiang, Synergistic effects of potassium channel blockers and pyrethroids: mosquitocidal activity and neuronal mode of action. University of Florida, Gainesville, Jeffrey Bloomquist
- 3rd Prize – Rui Chen, Inducing neural failure through chemical inhibition to insect inward rectifier potatssium channels, Louisiana State University, Daniel Swale
2018 Poster Competition Winners
- 1st Prize – Edwin Murenzi,Use of microtransplanted rat brain tissue in Xenopus oocytes to determine the toxicodynamic differences of pyrethroids on sodium channel isoforms in juvenile and adult mammalian brains. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, John Clark.
- 2nd Prize – Shiyao Jiang, High-throughput screening apparatus for evaluating spatial repellency and vapor toxicity of commercially available and candidate repellent compounds. University of Florida, Jeffrey Bloomquist
- 3rd Prize – Mary Grace Guardian, Estrone in aquatic systems in the presence of poultry litter and cow manure: Determination of its fate, degree of mineralization, and changes in its endocrine disrupting potential. University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Diana Aga
2017 Poster Competition Winners
- 1st Prize – Zhilin Li, Characterizing the physiological role and toxicological potential of potassium transport pathways in the tick salivary gland, Louisiana State University, Daniel Swale.
- 2nd Prize – Shiyao Jiang, Synergistic effect of permethrin with potassium channel blockers on Anopheles gambiae,University of Florida, Jeffrey Bloomquist.
- Co 3rd Prize Winners –
- Ping He, Mass spectrometry based detection of vitellogenin peptides as biomarker of fish exposure to estrogenic compounds in aquatic, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Diana Aga.
- Lei Su, Transformation of 2,4-D herbicides in simulated leaf surface systems, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Ning Dai.
2016 Poster Competition Winners
- 1st Prize – Edmund Norris, Exploring the relationship between PaOA1 receptor modulation and the insecticidal character of monoterpenoids. Iowa State University, Joel Coats.
- 2nd Prize – Nita Gabriela Chavez Soria, Mass Spectral identification of biomarkers of exposure to silver nanoparticles in corn roots, University of New York at Buffalo, Diana Aga.
- 3rd Prize – Scott O’Neal, Cardiac regulation of viral infection in a model social insect, Virginia Tech, Troy Anderson.