Justin Lack received the 2012 Stephen J. O’Brien Award from the American Genetics Association (AGA) for the Best Paper authored by a student in the Journal of Heredity during 2011. The paper that Justin received this award for is: Lack, J. B., R. D. Nicholls, G. M. Wilson, and R. A. Van Den Bussche. 2011. Genetic signature of reproductive manipulation in the phylogeography of the bat fly, Trichobius major. Journal of Heredity 102:705 – 718. As indicated in the award letter, “ A committee of the AGA Council evaluated whether candidate articles were substantial, novel and synthetic in their approaches.” The committee’s comments on the merits of Justin’s paper included: “Sophisticated analyses applied to an interesting problem. The distinguishing feature is that the authors examined a supplementary hypothesis positing infection driving a mtDNA selective sweep. An excellent study of parasite & host ecology, genomics and population biology on multiple levels. Three levels of species genetics tie into a concise example of evolution and adaptation. Well done and well written.” Justin is a Ph.D. student under the guidance of Dr. Ronald Van Den Bussche. Justin will be graduating in May 2012 and has accepted a Post-doc position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.