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Graduate Awards and Scholarships

Thanks to generous donations made by Victoria Esses, Issac Sherry, Alexander Sherry, and friends, family, colleagues, former students, and admirers alike, the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) is proud to offer the Dr. David Sherry AFAR graduate award in hopes of continuing Dr. Sherry's legacy of inspiring young ornithologists. 

Dr. Sherry is best known for his work in revolutionizing the field of animal psychology by taking an innovative approach combining ecology, cognition, and neuroscience to understand cognitive capacities as an evolutionary adaptation to serve natural behaviours. This framework of understanding later became known as "comparitive cognition", and while it was not recognized as its own field at the start of his career, Dr. Sherry made innumerable contributions demonstrating various aspects of memory and social learning in different species. Most famously is his work establishing memory as the primary means of which food-storing birds are able to recover cached food. More about Dr. Sherry's work can be read about here in this special issue of Learning and Behavior. 

CAM fondly remembers Dr. Sherry for his continuous dedication to the study of migratory birds. He was a key player in the establishment of AFAR in 2009, which remains a globally unique facility for studying avian physiology and behaviour - boasting the world's only wind tunnel capable of simulating different altitude conditions. Dr. Sherry retained a lifelong fascination for our feathered friends, and as put by Caroline Strang, one of Dr. Sherry's former students, even when stationed on a tiny fishing boat threatening to capsize into the sea, Dr. Sherry could still not help but excitedly cry out upon spotting a Scarlet ibis.

"Amidst all the chaos he was birding… he was always birding." 

Remembered as an outstanding lecturer (partially due to his background in theatre), an exceptionally kind and caring mentor, a brilliant researcher, and fantastic friend to all, David Sherry is sorely missed by both the Western, and larger community. 

To apply for this award, students may submit their CV and a 1-page statement outlining how they meet the award criteria as a single PDF attachment by email to Dr. Scott MacDougall-Shackleton (smacdou2@uwo.ca) by the next posted due-date.