2019 Paper and Poster Winners

There were many great presentations at the 2019 Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society meeting in Manhattan, Kansas (as part of the Kansas Natural Resource Conference). These meetings would not be as valuable without your willingness to share your research and management findings. We thank those presenters and encourage others to share their project outcomes at next years’ meeting.

The winners of the 2019 awards are as follows:


Best Professional Presentation
Skyler Hedden: Quantifying the predatory threat of Channel Catfish


Best Student Presentation
Elizabeth Renner: Characterizing limnological parameters in Kansas small impoundments across a gradient of Gizzard Shad densities


Best Professional Poster
Jeff Koch: Precision of age estimates obtained from sectioned and whole Bluegill otoliths


Best Student Poster
Joshua Holloway: Distribution, abundance, and condition of nonnative Redear Sunfish in the Spring River subbasin of Kansas


Bryan Sowards
Award Committee Chairman

2 Kansas Job Openings: Glen Elder and Wilson Reservoir Fisheries Aides

Save the Date for 2019!

2018 Business Meeting

Award Chairman Carson Cox presented the following awards from 2017 at the 2018 chapter business meeting:

Past President Award:  Presented to Bryan Sowards
for his service as chapter president.  

Best Professional Paper:  Ben C. Neely. 
“An Evaluation of Channel Catfish X Blue Catfish Hybrids
in Two Small Kansas Impoundments”

Best Student Paper:  Casey A. Pennock. 

“Can Fishways Mitigate Fragmentation Effects 

on Great Plains Fish Communities?”

Best Professional Poster:  Jeff Koch.  

“Exploitation of Walleye in Milford Reservoir, Kansas, 

with an Emphasis on a Large Fishing Tournament”

 Best Student Poster:  Andrew T. Karlin.  

“Drought-Related Declines of the Cylindrical Papershell 

(Anodontoides ferussacianus) in the Saline and Smoky 

Hill Rivers”

(not pictured)

Scholarship Chairman Sean Lynott presented this year's scholarship winners, each receiving a $300 scholarship and expenses paid to attend our annual meeting.

Otto Tiemeier-Frank Cross Student Scholarship: Garret Hopper

Klaassen Award: Tanna Fanshier

2018 Paper & Poster Winners

2018 paper & Poster Winners Announced:

I’d like to thank all the presenters at the 2018 Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society meeting in Manhattan, Kansas.  Your willingness to share your research findings with your peers was greatly appreciated.  After the points were totaled, the judges selected the following winners:

Best Professional Paper:  James E. Whitney:  Long-term change of a fish community in a polluted watershed: does clean water "act" on fishes?

Best Student Paper:  Lindsey Bruckerhoff: Predators and Landscape Factors at Multiple Spatial Scales Drive Fish Community Structure in the Flint Hills of Kansas

Best Professional Poster: Connor J. Chance-Ossowski:  A Comparison of Autumn Electrofishing and Autumn Fyke Nets for Sampling Bluegill and Redear Sunfish Populations

Best Student Poster:  Joshua A. Holloway:  Discovery of the Arkansas Darter (Etheostoma cragini) in the Cow Creek Drainage, Cherokee County, Southeastern Kansas.

- Carson Cox

Award Committee Chairman

2017 Paper and Poster Winners!

I’d like to thank all the presenters at this year’s Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society meeting in Wichita, Kansas.  Your willingness to share your research findings with your peers was greatly appreciated.  After the points were totaled, the judges selected the following winners:

Best Professional Paper:  Ben C. Neely.  “An Evaluation of Channel Catfish X Blue Catfish Hybrids in Two Small Kansas Impoundments”

Best Student Paper:  Casey A. Pennock. “Can Fishways Mitigate Fragmentation Effects on Great Plains Fish Communities?”

Best Professional Poster:  Jeff Koch.  “Exploitation of Walleye in Milford Reservoir, Kansas, with an Emphasis on a Large Fishing Tournament”

Best Student Poster:  Andrew T. Karlin.  “Drought-Related Declines of the Cylindrical Papershell (Anodontoides ferussacianus) in the Saline and Smoky Hill Rivers”

- Carson Cox, Award Committee Chairman

Student Scholarship Opportunities: 2017

The Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society is accepting applications for two scholarships to Kansas college students in fields of fisheries biology or aquatic sciences.  We hope that you and others in your department will encourage students to apply for these honors, and to become involved with our chapter.

In 2017, the Chapter will offer the Otto Tiemeier-Frank Cross Student Scholarship to a deserving graduate student and the Klaassen Award to a deserving undergraduate student.  Each will be a $300 scholarship, and the Chapter will pay expenses for the recipients to attend our annual meeting.

Applications for these awards should be submitted to the scholarship committee chair by January 14, 2017.  A one-page statement of achievements, aspirations, and goals should be written by the student.  The student should also solicit a one-page letter of reference from a major professor, or instructor who is familiar with the student.  This letter should detail the student's qualifications, and should also be submitted by January 14, 2017 (either accompanying the student's application, or under separate cover).  Both the student's application and the reference should include the student's full name, address, telephone number, and college affiliation. Award recipients will be notified prior to the Kansas Chapter business meeting held January 26-27, 2017 during the Kansas Natural resources Conference  in Wichita, Kansas.

Applications will be accepted via email.  Please post email applications with subject line “Kansas Chapter AFS Scholarship”. 

Multiple applications from any institution are encouraged for these awards.  Thus we urge you to distribute this information to qualified students in your institution. If you have questions or comments, please contact the committee chair or any officer of the Kansas Chapter.

Thank you for your participation, and support for these important awards.

Sincerely,

Sean Lynott

Scholarship Committee

1500 W. 7^TH St., PO Box 777

Chanute, KS 66720-0777

sean.lynott@ks.gov