Bill Wood Graduate Student Talk Award
This graduate student talk award honors Bill Wood’s many contributions to the initiation and support of the discipline of Biology Education Research, and long-time encouragement and training of students in both science and science education. This award is open to all graduate students who are first authors on an abstract submitted for a talk at the SABER Annual Meeting. The Abstract Committee reviews all abstracts submitted and selects those to be presented as short talks at the SABER meeting using the published evaluation criteria. Multiple raters from the SABER community then attend each graduate student first-authored short talk and evaluate the talks based on an agreed-upon rubric. The Awards Committee reviews the ratings at the meeting and selects the winners. Winners are presented with a monetary award at the Annual General Meeting on the last day of the conference.
2026 Award Winners |
Ray Potter
University of Washington "Anxiety Doesn’t (Just) Add Up: Evidence of Non-Linear Relationship with Performance in Postsecondary Introductory STEM Classes." Other Authors: Busch, Carly; Xu, Shangmou; Eddy, Sarah; | 
Rose Sofia
Auburn University "How international identity and institutional context shape student responses to discipline-specific terminology in undergraduate biology." Other Authors: Bellard, Raleigh; Davidyan, Arik; Rice, Mallory; |
2025 Award Winners
Generously sponsored by 
 Angelita Rivera Stanford University "The conceptualizations and enactments of Culturally-Sustaining, Responsive, and Relevant (CSRR) pedagogies among higher education biology instructors" Authors: Angelita Rivera (Stanford University)*; Shima Salehi (Stanford University) |
C. J. Zajic "The Role of Social Capital in Accessing Undergraduate Research Experiences" Authors: C.J. Zajic (University of Georgia)*; Trevor Tuma (University of Georgia); Erin Dolan (University of Georgia) |
2024 Award Winners
 Poorvi Datta "Edited captions on recorded lectures make STEM courses more accessible for students with disabilities" | 
"A proof of concept for Hopelessness Theory of Depression: Attributions help explain why challenges in research can exacerbate depressive symptoms among science undergraduates and graduates" |
2023 Award Winners
Julia Mellary University of Guelph "Unpacking How Past Educational Experiences Influence Instructional Beliefs & Practice" |
"Does Term-Based Learning in Biochemistry Result in Performance Gaps?" |
Krista Donis "Influence of Social Supports for Learning Assistants and Faculty on Student Engagement in Active Learning In-person STEM Classes" | Angela Google "Isolation, Resilience, and Faith: Experiences of Black Christian Students in Biology Graduate Programs" | Tatiane Russo-Tait "Science Faculty’s Conceptions of Equity and Their Relationship to Teaching Practices" |
2019 Winners
Amanda Sebesta - Saint Louis University Alex Paine - University of Colorado Boulder
Each awarded $375, generously sponsored by Pearson Publishing.
2018 Winners
Miranda Chen - University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Paul Le - University of Colorado Denver