The Div. 34 Undergraduate Student Research Award recognizes outstanding original research conducted by an undergraduate student or team of undergraduate students on any topic in environmental, conservation, or population psychology. The award consists of a certificate and a $150 prize. The award will be judged by a panel of division members and awarded on the basis of both the quality of the research and the writing. The submission may be an original empirical investigation, a qualitative review paper or a meta-analysis.

Papers may be authored by one or more undergraduate students. That is, team submissions are acceptable, as well as research conducted by individual students. If a team paper is selected to receive the award, the cash portion will be divided equally between the undergraduate authors.

There may be co-authors who are not students, but lead authors must be undergraduate students. Further, nominees must be current members of Division 34.

Students who would like their work considered for the award must make a submission. This submission should include the following:

1. cover letter indicating that they would like to be considered for the award;

2. letter from the faculty supervisor confirming that the applicant(s) is (are) an undergraduate student(s) in psychology or a related field (or was when the work was done) and that the applicant’s work on the project merits first authorship (In the case of a team submission, the confirmation should specify that lead authors are undergraduates, the work was a joint effort among the authors, and that the preponderance of the work was that of the undergraduate student authors.);

3. full paper in APA style (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, seventh edition) reporting the project (This should be a complete report of the work, as would be written for a journal submission);

4. two copies of the paper should be submitted: one with the authors' names included and one without, so blind reviews may be done.

Email your nominations along with any questions about the award to the current chair of the Awards Committee at awards@sepcp.org

2026: Emma Grant-Bier

“Participating in Climate Adaptation Planning Enhances Psychological Precursors of Action Among College Students”

2025: Olivia DiGiovine

"Consumers Exhibit Disposal Bias in Product Sustainability Judgments"

2024: Michelle Kenstler

“Love of Nature in the Time of Climate Change: Environmental Science Students Report Higher Levels of Nature-Relatedness and Eco-anxiety, but Not Resilience”

2021: Mira Lerner

"Influencing pro-environmental behaviors and understanding climate migration"

2020: Logan Bickel

“Environmental impassivity: Lower emotional responses across contexts underlie a lack of concern for the Earth”

2019: Grace Flores-Robles

“My guilty (dis)pleasure: The effects of guilt on pro-environmental intentions over time”

2018: Dana Goldstein, Anna Moore

"Effects of Education on Recycling Behavior in Student Housing"

2017: Elizabeth Bedrick

"Cutting carbon from the shopping cart: Consumer perceptions of a carbon label on food products"

2016: Annabel Price

"Not So Far Away: Can Affinity Alleviate Intergenerational Discounting in The Climate Game?”

2015: Benjamin K. Glor

"Let the outside in: Impacts of biophilic design"