Introduction

The CAP is hosting The Best Student Oral Presentation at Congress and The Best Student Poster at Congress competitions at the 2012 CAP Congress. There will be cash prizes awarded by CAP for the top three overall oral presentations by a student and for the top three overall poster presentations by a student. In addition, various CAP subject divisions and other sponsors will host more focused competitions by subject areas.

The intent of all these competitions is to encourage graduate students to present their research work to and interact with the Canadian physics community at an early stage in their careers. Students should present the work and take primary responsibility for the content of the presentation as well as the written abstract and, if selected as a winner, the extended summary for Physics in Canada. Undergraduate students who fulfill these criteria are also welcome to participate in the competition.

In order to be considered for this competition, a student must be a member of the CAP. Membership is free for undergraduates as well as for the first year as graduate student member. Membership applications and renewals can be submitted online at http://www.cap.ca/en/membership/fees-and-forms/online-application-forms.

Students who wish to enter these competitions must specifically indicate their intention to compete by selecting the appropriate option for either the oral or the poster competition at the time of submission of the congress abstract.  The links to the left provide a more complete description of both competitions.

Division and sponsored competitions

A student entering either the CAP best paper, CAP best poster, or an externally sponsored competition will automatically be entered into the appropriate CAP divisional competition if one exists and if he/she is a member of that division. Any student who has questions or concerns about competing for all prizes for which he/she is eligible should email cap [at] uottawa [dot] ca . Membership in a CAP subject division is free for students and can be activated upon applying or renewing CAP membership. Current members of CAP can join a CAP subject division by sending an email request to cap [at] uottawa [dot] ca .

Winners of the CAP subject division and the externally sponsored oral competitions will be announced at the CAP's congress desk on Thursday, June 14th at 4:45 p.m. Each winner will receive a ticket to the congress banquet which takes place that evening. Winners of the CAP subject division and externally sponsored poster competitions will each receive a ticket to the Thursday evening banquet when the finalists are announced during the poster session.

The list of CAP divisional competitions and prizes to be awarded at the 2012 CAP Congress can be found using the link on the left.