Nominations open for the 2026 Harry Smith Prize, recognizing early-career research published in Molecular Ecology The editorial board of the journal Molecular Ecology is seeking nominations for the Harry Smith Prize, which recognizes the best paper published in Molecular Ecology or Molecular Ecology Resources in the previous calendar year (2025) by graduate students or early career scholars with no more than five years of postdoctoral or fellowship experience. The prize comes with a cash award of US$1000 and an announcement in the journal and in the Molecular Ecologist. The winner of this annual prize is selected by a committee of former prize winners, chaired by Angel Rivera-Colon. The prize is named after Professor Harry Smith FRS, who founded Molecular Ecology and served as both Chief and Managing Editor during the journal=92s critical early years. He continued as the journal=92s Managing Editor until 2008, and he went out of his way to encourage early career scholars. In addition to his editorial work, Harry was one of the world=92s foremost researchers in photomorphogenesis, where he determined how plants respond to shading, leading to concepts such as =93neighbour detection=94 and =93shade avoidance,=94 which are fundamental to understanding plant responses to crowding and competition. More broadly his research provided an early example of how molecular data could inform ecology, and in 2008 he was awarded the Molecular Ecology Prize that recognized both his scientific and editorial contributions to the field. Please send a PDF of the paper you are nominating, with a short supporting statement (no more than 250 words; longer submissions will not be accepted) directly to molecol.social@gmail.com by Friday 24 April 2026. The subject line should include =932026 Harry Smith Prize=94. Self-nominations are encouraged. "Rieseberg, Loren" (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)