Student Conference on Conservation Science-New York
As a part of the only international series of conservation conferences featuring students and early-career professionals, SCCS-NY provides opportunities for emerging scientists to professionally network, gain experience, and present and get feedback on their work. Interactions with peers as well as leaders in science, policy, and management will encourage collaborations, inspire further research, and create lasting professional connections.
“This is the only conference where I’ve seen mentorship being provided to students, and this is absolutely amazing. The feedback is very helpful and a chance to talk to mentors during lunches and during breaks is extremely valuable.” - Ph.D. Student

The 2023 Conference
Join us for the 14th annual SCCS-NY! This year's hybrid conference will have both virtual and in-person programming. We will host three days of events and activities at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC and virtual attendance will be supported by live-watch parties of presentations, interactive Q&A sessions, and virtual workshops and mentoring sessions.

SCCS-NY 2023 conference program
At SCCS-NY 2023, you'll be able to:
- Present your work in talk, speed talk, or poster presentation format
- Receive personalized feedback from mentors
- Network with conservation professionals and peers
- Build your skills at workshops
What can you expect at SCCS-NY 2023?
- Plenaries by leading conservation practitioners
- In-person and virtual mentoring sessions
- In-person and virtual workshops
- Go behind the scenes at the Museum and explore its collections
- Awards for best presentations in 5 categories
- Special evening programming & receptions at the Museum
Conference agenda at a glance
8:30 AM: On-site check-in | Grand Gallery
9:00 AM: Workshop Session 1 | virtual
- Step up your poster game: designing research posters with Adobe Illustrator
- A hands-on introduction to spatial analysis
- What am I doing with my life? Career planning for conservation researchers and practitioners
- Power relations in conservation: from concepts to practical applications
12:00 PM: Break
12:30 PM: Workshop Session 2 | on-site
- Leadership Styles – identify your strengths as a conservation leader
- Landscape analysis using Google Earth Engine
- Interactive, reproducible, and accessible species distribution modeling for conservation w/ Wallace
- Data graphics for conservation: show the data!
- Applications of museum collections and phylogenomics to biodiversity conservation
- Optimizing urban sustainability co-benefits for biodiversity conservation in New York City
4:00 PM: Museum collection tours | on-site
5:30 PM: Welcome reception | Hall of Human Origins
6:30 PM: AMNH SciCafé | Hall of the Universe
8:00 PM: Adjourn
9:00 AM: On-site check-in
9:30 AM: Opening plenary: Dr. Nyeema Harris
10:00 AM: Plenary live Q&A
10:25 AM: Break
10:35 AM: Talk Session 1: Conservation in Support of Coexistence
- Bianca Santos | An intersectional analysis of fishers’ social-ecological resilience in Palau
- Sikha Hariharan | A tale of two abutting states in India: Differences in approaches to NTFP extraction
- Cárol Sierra Durán | Bats and Food Security: Insectivorous Bats as Pest Controllers in Mexican Rice Field
- Camille Ross | Incorporating prey information into North Atlantic right whale management tools
11:15 AM: Talk Session 1 Live Q&A
11:30 AM: Break
11:50 AM: Talk Session 2: Advancing the Conservation of Vulnerable Species
- Pavel Enríquez-Moncayo | Chloroplast phylogeny and hybridization of the Galapagos endemic genus Scalesia
- Ana Maria Saldarriaga | Captive population of Crocodylus intermedius: a genetic reservoir to save the species
- Jasmine Lu | Ear mite infection disrupts otic microbial networks in tumor-susceptible island foxes
12:20 PM: Talk Session 2 Live Q&A
1:00 PM: Mentor cafés | on-site & virtual
2:45 PM: Speed Talk Session 1: Filling Knowledge Gaps in Conservation
- Ariella Kornreich | Rehabilitation outcomes of avian building collision patients
- Jessica Espinosa | Can nesting in boxes help endangered roseate terns adjust to sea level rise?
- Hiromi Yagui Briones | Restoring invertebrate biodiversity through translocations using grasshoppers
- Heather Kostick | Evaluating and Understanding Biodiversity of Cemeteries in Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Jessica Kaur | Potential commercial dye application for berries from invasive plant species
- Adrianna Muniz | Is there evidence of local adaptation in common milkweed?
- Kim Hughes | Diet of bobcats (Lynx rufus) fatally affected by fragmentation in Connecticut, USA
3:15 PM: Speed Talk Session 1 Live Q&A
3:35 PM: Speed Talk Session 2: Filling Knowledge Gaps in Conservation
- Robin Singleton | Animal management and sacrificial power
- Valeria Navarro | Genetic Diversity & Structure of A. aculeata using DNA Microsatellites in Costa Rica
- Eva Hernandez-Janer | Wild orangutans and ecological disturbances: insights from stable isotope analysis
- Aamer Khan | Measures of adrenal and gonadal hormones among captive red pandas in Indian zoos
- Christopher Gemelli | Photogiraffes: can opportunistically collected photos create a census for giraffes?
- Rijamanalina Harizo Georginnot | First inventory of lemur community in the classified forest of Andilamena, Madagascar
- Angela Larios | Asian elephant conservation education in Thailand
- Tabor Whitney | Non-invasive biomarkers as a conservation tool to assess habitat degradation
4:05 PM: Speed Talk Session 2 Live Q&A
4:30 PM: Group photo | location TBD
5:00 PM: Poster Session & pizza party | Hall of Primitive Mammals
7:00 PM: Adjourn
9:00 AM: On-site check-in
9:30 AM: Speed Talk Session 3: Understanding Species' Needs Across the Globe
- James Herlan | Patterns of abundance, size, and dispersion of pocilloporid coral at Rapa Nui
- Shilpi Sarkar | Diversity study of marine crabs from coastal region of Bangladesh
- Devendra Singh | Diversity of bats from urban and non-urban regions of Uttarakhand Himalaya
- Eric Osei-Kwarteng | Hippo conservation status along the Black Volta River in Northern Ghana
- Annalee Anderson | Factors affecting Common Nighthawk distribution in Central Illinois
- Iqram ul Haq | Breeding biology and conservation issues of Ibisbill in Kashmir Himalaya, India
- Desamarie Antonette Fernandez | Spatiotemporal ecology of the collared mongoose in Palawan Island, Philippines
10:05 AM: Speed Talk Session 3 Live Q&A
10:25 AM: Talk Session 3: Monitoring & Modeling Species Across Ecosystems
- Eric Wuesthoff | Intact and regenerating forests differ in primate communities and seed dispersal
- Vallari Sheel | Interactions of urban tree & vertebrate species in New Delhi & Bengaluru, India
- Kyle Oliveira | Comparison of northwest Atlantic C. carcharias data sources in presence-only models
- Annapurna Post-Leon | Identification of functional drought refugia for bigcone Douglas-fir
11:05 AM: Talk Session 3 Live Q&A
11:20 AM: Break
11:40 AM: Talk Session 4: Interdisciplinary Conservation Practice
- Miaomiao Tian | Non-criminal legal responses-remedy wildlife through conservation litigation in China
- Isidoro Hazbun | Ancestral tides: Indigenous knowledge and protected area innovation in the Caribbean
- Natalie Robinson | Do informative social media captions impact perceptions of human-primate interactions
- Ann-Marie Jacoby | Historical reconstruction of common bottlenose dolphins in the Potomac River, USA
12:20 PM: Talk Session 4 Live Q&A
1:00 PM: Mentor cafés | on-site & virtual
2:45 PM: Speed Talk Session 4: Humans & Wildlife
- Simran Prasad | Human injury and death: a global review on understudied aspects of wildlife conflict
- Brianna Cook | Landscape of fear in mammals in response to anthropogenic hunting patterns
- Anish Paul | Rosettes in a matrix: comparing leopard densities in forests vs production landscapes
- Shloka Janapaty | A new estimate of biocrust contribution to global carbon and nitrogen flux
- Irmak Erdem | The flight capacity of birds in the Ecuadorian Andes influences the patches occupied
- Zeeshan Khalid | Wildlife trafficking goes digital: scale of illegal wildlife trade in Pakistan
3:10 PM: Speed Talk Session 4 Live Q&A
3:30 PM: Break
3:45 PM: Careers Panel: Exploring Diverse Paths in Conservation
5:00 PM: Awards ceremony & closing reception | Hall of Mexico & Central America
6:00 PM: Adjourn
Who Should Attend?
If you are an undergraduate or graduate student, post-doctoral fellow, or early-career professional (from anywhere in the world!) pursuing or considering the field of conservation, we encourage you to attend! Whatever your focus—biology, social sciences, medicine, economics, architecture, law—if it has relevance to conservation, we want to include your perspective.
If you are a conservation professional or faculty member, consider attending and contributing to SCCS-NY as a mentor! Providing mentoring for our student and early-career professional attendees is central to the mission of SCCS-NY. Mentors can participate by reviewing abstracts, providing feedback on presentations, and/or hosting a mentoring session or workshop. Opportunities for asynchronous, virtual, and in-person mentoring are available! Please contact the conference organizers at [email protected] for more details on how to get involved.
How to Attend
All applicants/registrants must choose if they will attend the conference in-person or virtually during the application/registration process. Specific details on the different (in-person and virtual) modes of participation are explained within the application process. The call for applications to present a talk, speed talk, poster, or workshop at SCCS-NY has closed, but attendance-only registration will remain open until October 1, 2023.
The registration fee for the conference is $75, which includes access to all presentations and events during the conference dates, as well as any materials and content available online after the conference.
Community Care
We want our on-site events to be as safe and comfortable as possible for participants, staff, and the public. Please refer to the SCCS-NY Code of Conduct as well as the Museum’s Health and Safety during COVID-19 page for specific policies, which are informed by current federal and local guidelines.
- KN95 or similar masks and COVID-19 rapid antigen tests will be available at the conference.
- If traveling to attend the conference, please follow all necessary guidelines/requirements from the U.S. government and your departure country.
- We will have “to go” options for the lunches provided on-site.
- Your health, as well as other conference participants’ and staff health, is of the highest priority. If you need to cancel your participation (in-person or virtual), or switch to virtual participation, please contact the conference staff at [email protected]. Health related cancellations will be eligible for registration reimbursement.
If you have questions, concerns, or would like to discuss any accommodation needs, please email [email protected].
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SCCS-NY 2023 flyer
SCCS Sister Conferences
SCCS-New York is a sister conference to the highly successful SCCS-Cambridge. Begun in 2000, the conference series now includes SCCS-NY, SCCS-Bengaluru, SCCS-Australia, SCCS-Beijing, and SCCS-Hungary.