J Colhoun Poster Prize

The Board of BSPP wishes to encourage young plant pathologists and others who are eligible to take part in the John Colhoun poster prize, which is awarded for the presentation of a poster at the Presidential Meeting each year. To be eligible, the work presented must form part of a research project conducted by the entrant in support of a PhD or Masters degree, and the entrant must not have been awarded the degree prior to the deadline date for abstracts.

Students need not be members of BSPP.

Click here to read more about John Colhoun

Eligibility

The session is more appropriately termed the ‘Postgraduate Student Research Poster Award’.

In order to be able to enter the competition, each entrant must satisfy the following criteria:

1. The work presented must form part of a research project conducted by the entrant in support of qualifying for a higher degree (Masters, doctorate).
2. The entrant must not have been awarded their degree prior to the deadline for abstracts for the Conference. This means that students who have already submitted the work in a thesis but have not been through the examination process or degree award are still eligible to enter.
3. The subject matter must be judged as suitable for the Conference.

Process and judging criteria

The judging panel will comprise 2-3 people. Each judge is given a score sheet with entrant names, poster titles and criteria for assessing quality. There will be a designated judging time at which the student is expected to be in attendance at the poster. Students are given the names of the judges but judges do not wear special identification. During the Poster Session the judges will visit each student in the competition and score the poster on different criteria from 1 – 10 (10 best).

Criteria advised to the judges to look for are:

Overall presentation of the poster: does it convey the research project adequately, does it give clear results and conclusions? (a poster may be marked down for instance if the text is too small, the poster too crowded with too much information etc). It may happen that judges visit the posters during a quiet time of the conference in order to become familiar with the subject matter and form a score on presentation.

Is the student familiar with the work? The student will be asked questions… not trick ones, but ones considered typical of anyone wanting to know more about the project. From the answers the judge can form a fair opinion as to how good the student is in ‘thinking about’ and planning the research project. 

Judges complete the score sheets and pass them to the Programme Secretary for collation.

The judge’s decision is announced at an appropriate time, and presentations made at the Conference Dinner.

Past winners of the prize were: