Grants
Student Research Grants
The Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour is committed to supporting behavioural research within the Australasian region, with an emphasis on providing opportunities for earlier-career scientists.
For information on our 2024 round of ASSAB Student Research Grants, click on the link below:
ASSAB Student Research Grants 2024
Past winners of our ASSAB student grants
| Year | Student | Institution | Project title | Award (AUD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Sarah Bartsch | University of Adelaide | Living in an urban environment: the relationship between chronic stress, anxiety and cognitive ability in the Common Brushtail Possum | $2500 |
| 2023 | Frigg Speelman | University of Adelaide | Automatized tracking of birds in the wild: quantifying socially monogamous partnerships and their effects | $2500 |
| 2023 | Nicola-Anne Rutkowski | University of Melbourne | The impact of ALAN on nutritional ecology | Highly commended |
| 2023 | Shannon W. Kaiser | Macquarie University | How does aerially deployed fire-retardant affect aquatic ecosystems? | Highly commended |
| 2022 | Hannah Smart | Western Sydney University | When predators attack, termites fight back: the evolution of antipredator defences in Australian termites | $2,500 |
| 2022 | Anna Menzies | University of Auckland | Investigating geographic and between-sex vocal variation in a native New Zealand bird | $2,500 |
| 2022 | Giovanni M. Ramón-Cabrera | Macquarie University | Predator detection and avoidance in strobe ants, Opisthopsis spp. | Highly Commended |
| 2022 | Connor Marsland | Western Sydney University | Aposematic colouration in the red-headed mouse spider (Missulena occatoria) | Highly Commended |
| 2021 | Lauren Harrison | Australian National University | Fighting the clock: do long-term winner-loser effects influence rates of telomeric attrition? | $2,500 |
| 2021 | Linda Duran | James Cook University | Does behaviour drive changes in venom composition in the Australian funnel-web spider? | $2,500 |
| 2021 | Finn Parker | University of Sydney | Messing with their minds: using phantom decoys to alter perceived missed opportunity costs in vertebrate pest animals | Highly Commended |
| 2021 | Lu-Yi Wang | University of Melbourne | Bug off: biomechanics underlying the defensive flicking behaviour of Austraeus jewel beetles | Highly Commended |
| 2020 | Juliane Gaviraghi Mussoi | University of Auckland | The effects of sleep on vocal performance in birds | $2,500 |
| 2020 | Jack Brand | Monash University | Feral fighters: The role of behaviour in mediating the recent invasion of Siamese fighting fish in Northern Australia | $2,500 |
| 2020 | Braxton Jones | University of Sydney | How egg laying behaviour can lead to dispersal strategies across Australia | Highly commended |
| 2020 | Bonnie Humphrey | University of Canterbury | Effects of cannabis on sustained attention in jumping spiders | Highly commended |
| 2019 | Caitlyn Drayton-Taylor | University of Sydney | Understanding consumer behaviour: context dependent foraging behaviour of bees | $1,000 |
| 2019 | Misha Rowell | James Cook University | Age or experience? Studying the problem of problem solving using a native Australian rodent | $1,000 |
| 2019 | Geoffrey Mazure | University of Sydney | To follow or not to follow: how information quality determines leadership in animal groups | $1,000 |
| 2019 | Pernille Sorensen | University of Bristol | The influence of habitat configuration on male bottlenose dolphin alliance behaviour | Highly Commended |
| 2019 | Alfonso Aceves | Macquarie University | Camouflaged retreat building behaviour of two species of jumping spiders: a comparative study within the Arasia genus | Highly Commended |
| 2018 | Kaya Moore | University of Melbourne | Do songs function as mutual sexual ornaments in willie wagtails? | Highly Commended |
| 2018 | Cassandra Mark-Chan | University of Auckland | Multifaceted deception in the North Island lichen moth, Declana atronivea: a morphological and behavioural investigation | Highly Commended |
| 2018 | Cedric van den Berg | University of Queensland | Does being a night-owl affect your looks? The effects of diel activity on the defensive colouration of nudibranch molluscs | $1,000 |
| 2018 | Ivan Beltran | Macquarie University | Taking the heat: can mothers buffer global warming and still produce smart babies? | $1,000 |
| 2018 | Fanny-Linn Hovring Kraft | Deakin University | Transgenerational effects of stress on song learning | $1,000 |
| 2017 | Maider Iglesias Carrasco | ANU/University of Basque Country | Are females in good condition better able to cope with costly males? | Highly Commended |
| 2017 | Madeline Jackson | Deakin University | Do microbes play a role in chemical communication in koalas (Phascolarctos cinereous) | Highly Commended |
| 2017 | Bhagya Herath | La Trobe University | Multimodal signaling by the Australian dancing frog, Litoria fallax | $1,000 |
| 2017 | Erin Powell | University of Auckland | Investigating trade-offs between pre- and post-copulatory traits in NZ harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) with weapon trimorphism | $1,000 |
| 2017 | Ashton Dickerson | University of Melbourne | The function of nocturnal song and the influence of light at night in a diurnal bird species | $1,000 |
| 2016 | Kathleen Collier | University of Auckland | The social organisation of Mystacina tuberculata: roost-selection and courtship behaviour | Highly Commended |
| 2016 | Amelie Vanderstock | University of Sydney | Determining the effects of coal dust pollution on honeybee Apis mellifera behaviour | Highly Commended |
| 2016 | Alexis Levengood | University of Sunshine Coast | How mothers shape evolution: The evolutionary significance of maternal effects on social behavior in long-lived mammals | $1,000 |
| 2016 | Stephen Zozaya | James Cook University | Using pheromones to understand mate choice and diversification in Australia’s hyper-diverse lizard fauna | $1,000 |
| 2016 | Leena Riekkola | University of Auckland | Modeling Humpback Whale Use in Antarctica | $1,000 |
| 2015 | Julie Broken-Brow | University of Queensland | Using flight behaviour to resolve a complex acoustic identification problem in cryptic sheath-tailed bat species. | $500 |
| 2015 | Elizabeth Newton | University of Melbourne | Shedding light on feathers: how bird feathers intercept visible and near-infrared sunlight to aid thermoregulation. | $500 |
| 2015 | Michael Bertram | Monash University | Sex in troubled waters: effects of widespread agricultural pollutants on mating behaviour and post-copulatory reproduction in fish | $1,000 |
| 2015 | Anne Aulsebrook | University of Melbourne | Bright lights, sleepless nights: the impacts of artificial light at night on melatonin, behaviour and sleep in black swans | $1,000 |
| 2014 | David Hamilton | University of Tasmania | Social networks, behaviour and transmission of facial tumour disease in Tasmanian devils | $1,000 |
| 2013 | Caitlin Newport | University of Queensland | ||
| 2013 | Petah Low | University of Sydney | ||
| 2013 | Steph Price | Victoria University | ||
| 2013 | Zhi FooYong | University of Western Australia | ||
| 2013 | Tina Packmezian | Macquarie University | ||
| 2013 | Jose Ramos | La Trobe University | ||
| 2012 | Anna Carter | Victoria University of Wellington | Stringing out nesting migration in tuatara: a mechanistic view of reproductive energetics | $900 |
| 2012 | Danielle Klomp | University of New South Wales | Diversity of communication signals in Genus Draco | $600 |
| 2012 | Anita Cosgrove | University of Queensland | Does habitat fragmentation impact sedentary bird species through reduced resource availability? | $500 |
| 2012 | Michelle Roper | Massey University | Song ontogeny and the micro-evolution of dialects in the NZ bellbird (Anthornis melanura) | $500 |
| 2012 | Emma Mcleod | University of Technology, Sydney | Coping with climatic extremes: The impact of behavioural thermoregulatory strategies on the response of a rock-dwelling marsupial to a changing climate. | $500 |
| 2012 | Genevieve Phillips | University of Queensland | Beauty is in the eye-of-the-beholder: reef fish patterns from a fish-eye-view | Highly Commended |
| 2011 | Gabriel Machovsky Capuska | Massey University | Are gannets the capuchin monkeys of the ocean? | $1000 + conference costs |
| 2011 | Cory Toth | University of Auckland | The breeding ecology of the Lesser Short-tailed Bat (Mystacina tuberculata) | $750 + conference costs |
| 2011 | Lun-Hsien Chang | Macquarie University | The functional consequences of a bigger brain- effects of stimulated growth in mushroom bodies on homing success in honeybees | $500 + conference costs |
| 2011 | Scott Fabricant | Macquarie University | Predator perception as a source of population divergence in colour patterns of the ‘aposematic’ Hibiscus Harlequin Bug (Tectocoris diopthalamus) | $500+ conference costs |
| 2011 | James Makinson | University of Sydney | Peer pressure in honeybees: Using consensus signals to manipulate decision-making in European honeybee swarms | $250 + conference costs |
| 2011 | Dani Chandrasoma | Macquarie University | Sexual selection in the Eastern Water Dragon (Physignathus lesueurii) | Highly Commended |
| 2011 | James O’Hanlon | Macquarie University | Myrmecochory as an egg dispersal strategy in Australian Phasmids | Highly Commended |
| 2010 | Isobel Booksmythe | Australian National University | The effects of competitor size on shoaling preferences in mosquitofish | $500 + conference costs |
| 2010 | Noriyoshi Kawasaki | Monash University | Indirect fitness effects of alloparental care in captive common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) | $500 + conference costs |
| 2010 | Sarah Withers | University of Auckland | A test of the habitat saturation hypothesis: Using translocation to investigate the effects of density and nest site availability on co-operation in a managed passerine species | $500 + conference costs |
| 2010 | Nicole Lowrey | University of Melbourne | Extended phenotypes in animal communication: the function of petal-displays in fairy wrens | $500 + conference costs |
| 2010 | Shelley Myers | University of Auckland | Is speciation driven by mating behaviour in New Zealand stick insects? | $500 + conference costs |
| 2010 | Christina Painting | University of Auckland | Sex and conflict in the Giraffe Weevil | $500 + conference costs |
| 2010 | Amanda Franklin | University of Melbourne | The effect of mating on the lifespan of female dumpling squid, Euprymna tasmanica | Highly Commended + conference costs |
| 2010 | Amanda Greer | University of Canterbury | Exploring the relationship between kea foraging behavior and the nutritional contents of the plants on which they feed | Highly Commended + conference costs |
| 2009 | Elizabeth Ronik | James Cook University | Effects of amphibian behaviour on the occurence and development of Chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease (PhD) | $1000 + conference costs |
| 2009 | Rachel Slatyer | Australian National University | Polyandry in the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi (Honours) | $1000 + conference costs |
| 2009 | Anna Gsell | Massey University | Chemical communication in the critically endangered Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) (PhD) | $500 + conference costs |
| 2009 | Madeleine Yewers | University of Melbourne | Personality variation on mate choice and establishment of pair bonds in a cooperative breeder (PhD) | $500 + conference costs |
