ESEB JOHN MAYNARD SMITH PRIZE Each year the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) distinguishes an outstanding young evolutionary biologist with a prize named after John Maynard Smith (1920 - 2004), eminent scientist, great mentor, author of many books on evolution, and a former President of ESEB. NOMINATION The prize is open to any field of evolutionary biology. The candidates for the 2026 prize should have commenced their PhD study after January 1, 2019. However, nominees who started their PhD earlier than January 1, 2019 will also be considered if they have taken career breaks; an outline of the reason should be given. Self and non-self nominations are both welcome. Documents supporting a nomination should be sent as a single PDF file to Ute Friedrich at the ESEB office office@eseb.org. _Non-self nominations_: _1. Letter of support_. If you are nominating someone, please send a letter of support for the nomination directly to . - Your letter should outline the candidate's academic qualities as well as their wider diverse contributions including to EDI and Open Research _2. Candidate documentation_. If you are nominating someone, ask them to send a single pdf file to . This file should contain: - a brief description of the candidate's contributions to the study of evolution (1 page maximum) - the candidate's CV and a list of publications (indicating three notable papers and a description of the candidate's contributions to those three papers) - the CV should also include information on the candidate's wider, diverse contributions including to EDI and Open Research - a short description of current research (1 page maximum) - a short description of future research plans (1 page maximum) _Self nominations_: _1. Letter of support_. Ask a colleague to write a supporting statement, as above, for your nomination. They should send this letter directly to . _2. Candidate documentation_. Send the same candidate information as outlined above directly to . DEADLINE Nominations and letters of support should arrive no later than THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2026. Please take care to limit the size of attachments (total < 10MB) in any one email. The nomination committee, chaired by the ESEB Vice-President Deepa Agashe, will evaluate the nominations and inform the winner approximately by end of March 2026. ASSESSMENT PROCESS The evaluation committee, after ruling out any potential conflicts of interest, will review all the material. The evaluation committee will consider the academic merit of applications. In addition, they will also consider (i) diverse contributions - /e.g./ via science outreach, teaching, mentoring, community service, EDI, mitigation of climate change impacts, etc, and (ii) engagement with Open Research, /e.g./, via sharing of research via mechanisms including Open Access, preprint servers, and sharing of data, code, protocols, etc. The evaluation committee is also instructed to take into account potential differences in access to opportunities, and to be aware of, call out and take steps to minimise, conscious and unconscious biases in their evaluations. AWARD DETAILS The prize winner is expected to attend the ESEB hub congress in August 2027, where they will deliver the 2026 John Maynard Smith Lecture. The Society will cover early bird member registration, accommodation, and travel expenses (economy fares). The JMS Prize comes with a monetary prize of 2,500 euro , the invitation to write a review for the /Journal of Evolutionary Biology/, and the possibility of a Junior Fellowship of 6 months at the Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin, Germany. For more information on the Institute of Advanced Study see https://www.wiko-berlin.de/en/ Previous winners of the JMS Prize are listed at the ESEB web site: https://eseb.org. Sincerely, Deepa Agashe ESEB Vice-President** ESEB Office (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)