Outstanding paper prize
The JEB Outstanding paper prize – conceived in 2005 in memory of JEB's fifth Editor-in-Chief, Bob Boutilier – was set up to inspire young researchers embarking on their scientific careers.
Each year, the journal awards a prize (£1000) to the junior author (or authors, where there is joint authorship) of the research paper that is judged (by the journal's editors) to have made the most outstanding contribution to the journal that year (issues 1–24).
To be eligible for consideration for the prize, the author who made the most significant contribution to the research paper must have been either a student or a postdoc (of no more than 5 years standing) when the work was done. At article submission, the corresponding author of the paper will be asked to confirm if there are any eligible authors on their paper.
The Outstanding paper prize winner and shortlist are announced in the News section of the journal.
Previous winners since 2010
2023 Hoover Pantoja-Sanchez and Brian Leavell (Purdue University, USA): Tiny spies: mosquito antennae are sensitive sensors for eavesdropping on frog calls
2022 Samuel Fabian (University of Cambridge, UK) and Mary Sumner (University of Minnesota, USA): Avoiding obstacles while intercepting a moving target: a miniature fly's solution
2021 Emily Hardison (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA): Diet mediates thermal performance traits: implications for marine ectotherms
2020 Adam Hardy (The University of Chicago, USA): Sensing the structural characteristics of surfaces: texture encoding by a bottom-dwelling fish
2019 Kephra Beckett and Anne Robertson (University of British Columbia, Canada): Studies on gas exchange in the meadow spittlebug, Philaenus spumarius: the metabolic cost of feeding on, and living in, xylem sap
2018 Till Harter, Mike Sackville and Dave Metzinger (University of British Columbia, Canada): A solution to Nature's haemoglobin knockout: a plasma-accessible carbonic anhydrase catalyses CO2 excretion in Antarctic icefish gills
2017 Jonas Wolff (University of Kiel, Germany): Hunting with sticky tape: functional shift in silk glands of araneophagous ground spiders (Gnaphosidae)
2016 Géraldine von Uckermann and François Lambert (Université Bordeaux, France): Adaptive plasticity of spino-extraocular motor coupling during locomotion in metamorphosing Xenopus laevis
2015 Jennifer Hobbs (Northwestern University, USA): Probability distributions of whisker–surface contact: quantifying elements of the rat vibrissotactile natural scene
2014 Anna Honkanen (University of Oulu, Finland): Cockroach optomotor responses below single photon level
2013 Inge Revsbech (Aarhus University, Denmark): Hemoglobin function and allosteric regulation in semi-fossorial rodents (family Sciuridae) with different altitudinal ranges
2012 Nicole George (University of Washington, USA): Temperature gradients drive mechanical energy gradients in the flight muscle of Manduca sexta
2011 Cassondra Williams (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA): What triggers the aerobic dive limit? Patterns of muscle oxygen depletion during dives of emperor penguins
2010 Chen Chiu (University of Maryland, USA): Effects of competitive prey capture on flight behaviour and sonar beam pattern in paired big brown bats, Eptesicus fuscus
