Society Awards
The Human Behavior and Evolution Society Early Career Award and Lifetime Career Award recognizes individuals for their contributions to the field. Beginning in 2023, we will introduce the Rising Star Award, HBES Fellows, and the Don Symons Adaptationism Award. In addition, each year the editors of Evolution and Human Behavior, the official journal of the society, award the Margo Wilson Award for best paper published in Evolution and Human Behavior.
The HBES Rising Star Award
The HBES Rising Star Award is presented to outstanding HBES members in the earliest stages of their research careers post-PhD. This designation recognizes researchers whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions.
Eligibility and Nomination Information
Individuals being considered for the HBES Rising Star designation are evaluated for their promise of excellence in research based on the following criteria:
- significant discoveries, methodological innovations, or theoretical or empirical contributions
- work with potentially broad impact
- significant publications
- significant recognitions
- demonstrated independence from mentors
Nominations for the HBES Rising Star Award should include the nominee’s curriculum vita and a one-page (maximum) statement about the nominee’s worthiness. Statements must be on university letterhead with 12-point Times New Roman font and 1″ margins. This nomination letter should include the following information:
- What are the general themes of the nominee’s major lines of research?
- What are the important research findings discovered by the nominee?
- To what extent have the nominee’s contributions generated research in the field?
Please note: The award is subject to the following limitation: The nominee must be no more than eight years post-PhD by May of the year of their nomination.
Nominations will be due online yearly on March 1. This is a new award for HBES beginning in 2023.
The Rising Star Award is not necessarily awarded every year. When it is awarded, it will be given to at most five outstanding individuals per year.
Eligibility and Nomination Information
HBES Fellow status is awarded to HBES members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the study and/or teaching of evolution and human behavior, and/or to the service of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.
Nominations for HBES Fellows should include the nominee’s curriculum vita and a short nomination letter (1,500 words, max) answering up to three prompts regarding the nominee’s worthiness based upon some combination of their research excellence, teaching excellence, and/or excellence in service to HBES. Statements should be on university letterhead. Nomination letters can outline contributions to multiple areas or to a single area, wherein nominators explain the nominee’s:
- sustained, outstanding scientific contributions to the study of evolution and human behavior and/or
- sustained, outstanding teaching contributions in the area of evolution and human behavior and/or
- sustained, outstanding service contributions to the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.
Please note: The award is subject to the following limitation: The nominee must be at least 10 years post-PhD by of the year of their nomination. Self-nominations are welcome.
Nominations will be due online yearly on March 1. This is a new award for HBES in 2023.
This award is not necessarily conferred every year.
2022 Award Winner
2022 Damian Murray
Department of Psychology
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA, USA
Previous Award Winners
 2021 Willem FrankenhuisDepartment of Psychology Utrecht University, Utrecht |
 2020 Katherine McAuliffeDepartment of Psychology Boston College |
 2019 Brendan ZietschSchool of Psychology The University of Queensland |
 2018 Josh TyburDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
 2017 Coren ApicellaDepartment of Psychology University of Pennsylvania, USA |
 2016 Marco Del GiudiceDepartment of Psychology University of New Mexico, USA |
 2015 Pat BarclayDepartment of Psychology University of Guelph, Canada |
 2014 Vladas GriskeviciusCarson School of Management University of Minnesota |
 2013 David A. Puts Department of Anthropology Pennsylvania State University, USA |
 2012 Lisa DeBruineInstitute of Neuroscience and Psychology University of Glasgow, UK |
 2010 Michael GurvenDepartment of Anthropology University of California, Santa Barbara, USA |
 2009 Joseph Henrich Department of Psychology University of British Columbia, Canada |
 2008 Rob KurzbanDepartment of Psychology University of Pennsylvania |
Nominations
The nomination letter should include the following information:
- What are the general themes of the nominee’s major lines of research?
- What are the important research findings discovered by the nominee?
- To what extent have the nominee’s contributions generated research in the field?
Nominations for the HBES Early Career Award should include a statement about the worthiness of the nominee, curriculum vita of the nominee, a recent complete bibliography, and no more than five reprints representative of the nominee’s contributions. Statements should be no more than one page, with 12-point Times New Roman font and 1″ margins, and should be on university letterhead.
Please note: The award is subject to the following limitation: The nominee must be no more than ten years post-Ph.D.
Nominations should be submitted ONLINE yearly by February 1.
Notes: the Early Career Award is not necessarily awarded every year. When it is awarded, it will be given to at most one person per year.
2022 Award Winner
2022 Douglas Kenrick
Department of Psychology
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ, USA
Previous Award Winners
 2021 Hillard KaplanEconomic Science Institute School of Pharmacy The George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics Chapman University, USA |
 2020 David PerrettSchool of Psychology & Neuroscience University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK |
 2019 Bobbi LowSchool of Natural Resources and Environment University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA |
 2018 David BussDepartment of Psychology University of Texas, Austin, USA |
  2017 Robert Boyd & Peter RichersonSchool of Human Evolution and Social Change Arizona State University, USA Department of Environmental Science and Policy University of California Davis, USA |
 2016 Leda Cosmides & John ToobyCenter for Evolutionary Psychology University of California, Santa Barbara, USA |
 2015 Randy NesseCenter for Evolution and Medicine Arizona State University, USA |
| 2014 (no award made) |
 2013 Sarah HrdyDepartment of Anthropology University of California, Davis, USA |
 2012 Jane LancasterDepartment of Anthropology University of New Mexico, USA |
 2011 William IronsDepartment of Anthropology Northwestern University, USA |
 2010 Napoleon ChagnonDepartment of Anthropology University of California, Santa Barbara, USA |
 2009 Martin Daly and Margo WilsonDepartment of Psychology McMaster University, Canada |
 2008 Richard AlexanderMuseum of Zoology University of Michigan, USA |
Nominations
Nominations are open for the HBES Lifetime Career award. If you wish to nominate someone, please follow these guidelines. Nominations for these awards should include a letter of nomination, a curriculum vita, a recent complete bibliography, up to five representative reprints and the names and addresses of several scientists familiar with the nominee’s work.
- What has been the significant and enduring influence of the nominee’s research?
- What historical contribution has the nominee’s research made to the field?
- Compare the nominee with others in her/his field.
- What influence has the nominee had on students and others in the same field of study?
- Where possible, please identify the nominee’s students by name.
Nominations should be submitted ONLINE yearly by February 1.
Notes: the Lifetime Career Award is not necessarily awarded every year. When it is awarded, it will be given to at most one person per year or, in rare cases, to a collaborative team whose joint, lifetime work constitutes a Distinguished Scientific Contribution.
Don Symons Adaptationism Award
The Don Symons Adaptationism Award is bestowed for the best paper exemplifying the adaptationist program. Papers written or published in the last three years are eligible. To be considered, the paper and a letter nominating it (preferably from someone other than the authors) should be submitted online by March 1. Nomination letters must be no more than one page (12-point Times New Roman font and 1″ margins). This is a new award for HBES in 2023.
Submit nomination materials here by April 1 for the 2023 cycle and March 1 thereafter.
2022 Winner
2022 Gerdemann, S. C., & Wertz, A. E. (2021). 18-month-olds use different cues to categorize plants and artifacts. Evolution and Human Behavior, 42(4), 304-315.
Previous Award Winners
2021 Schrock, J. M., Snodgrass, J. J., & Sugiyama, L. S. (2020). Lassitude: The emotion of being sick. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41, 44-57.
2020 Conroy-Beam, D., Roney, J. R., Lukaszewski, A. W., Buss, D.M., Asao, K., Sorokowska, A., Sorokowski, P., et al. [105 others] (2019). Assortative mating and the evolution of desirability covariation. Evolution & Human Behavior, 40 (5), 479-491.
2019 Kyweluk, M. A., Georgiev, A. V., Borja, J. B., Gettler, L. T., & Kuzawa, C. W. (2018). Menarcheal timing is accelerated by favorable nutrition but unrelated to developmental cues of mortality or familial instability in Cebu, Philippines. Evolution and Human Behavior, 39(1), 76-81.
2018 Coren Apicella, Alyssa C. Crittenden, & Victoria A. Tobolsky (2017). Hunter-gatherer males are more risk-seeking than females, even in late childhood. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(5), 592-603.
2017 Adar B. Eisenbruch, Rachel L. Grillot, Dario Maestripieri & James R. Roney (2016). Evidence of partner choice heuristics in a one-shot bargaining game. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37(6), 429-439.
2016 Rachel Kendal, Lydia M. Hopper, Andrew Whiten, Sarah F. Brosnan, Susan P. Lambeth, Steven J. Schapiro & Will Hoppitt (2015). Chimpanzees copy dominant and knowledgeable individuals: implications for cultural diversity. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36(1), 65-72.
2015a Casey J. Roulette, Hayley Mann, Brian M. Kemp, Mark Remiker, Jennifer W. Roulette, Barry S. Hewlett, Mirdad Kazanji, Sébastien Breurec, Didier Monchy, Roger J. Sullivan & Edward H. Hagen (2014). Tobacco use vs. helminths in Congo basin hunter-gatherers: self-medication in humans? Evolution and Human Behavior, 35(5), 397-407.
2015b James Holland Jones & Rebecca Bliege Bird (2014). The marginal valuation of fertility. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35(1), 65-71.
2014 Jeffrey Winking & Nicholas Mizer (2013). Natural-field dictator game shows no altruistic giving. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(4), 288–293.
2013 Maciej Chudek, Sarah Heller, Susan Birch & Joseph Henrich (2012). Prestige-biased cultural learning: bystander’s differential attention to potential models influences children’s learning. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 46–56.
2012 Alex Mesoudi (2011). An experimental comparison of human social learning strategies: Payoff-biased social learning is adaptive but under-used. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32, 334–342.
2011 David A. Puts (2010). Beauty and the beast: mechanisms of sexual selection in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31, 157–175.
2010 Andreas Wilke & Clark Barrett (2009). The hot hand phenomenon as a cognitive adaptation to clumped resources. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 161-169.
Conference Awards
The Human Behavior and Evolution Society also recognizes scholarly contributions during the annual conference. The HBES Conference Awards include the Post-Doctoral Award, the New Investigator Award, and the Best Poster Award.
One is eligible for the Post-Doctoral Award up to five years post-Ph.D. One is eligible for the New Investigator Award if they were a gradaute student at the time of the work (see below).
Additionally, to be eligible for the New Investigator or Post-Doctoral Awards, individuals must submit a manuscript corresponding with the abstract they have submitted for a talk. Your manuscript can have co-authors, but you must be the first author on the manuscript, and the manuscript must predominantly describe your own work. Note that the manuscript can be “in prep” (e.g., a pre-print), under review, or accepted for publication. Submission will occur via conference organizers yearly.
All posters will be eligible for the Best Poster Award. You need not contact conference organizers to be considered for the Best Poster Award.