What Awards, Grants, and Student Programs Does ACA Offer?

The American Crystallographic Association (ACA) lists several distinct award, grant, and student programs on its website: the Etter Student Lecturer Award, poster prizes, the Travel Grant Program, the Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition, the Excellence in Structure award, and the Fellows designation. Most of these are tied to the ACA Annual Meeting, and the site groups them under "Meeting Awards & Grants" and "Association Awards." The pages describe what each program is, but they do not publish eligibility rules, dollar amounts, or deadlines in the text available here — for those specifics you need to open the individual program pages or contact the association.

Meeting Awards and Grants

These programs are organized around the ACA Annual Meeting and are the main route for students and early-career researchers to get recognition and travel support.

Two practical points follow from how the site is organized. First, because these are meeting awards, the natural sequence is: register for and attend the annual meeting, present in the relevant format (talk or poster), and then be considered through the corresponding program. Second, the Travel Grant Program is listed alongside the awards rather than under general membership benefits, which suggests it is administered in connection with meeting participation — confirm the application window on its own page before you book travel.

The Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition is worth planning for separately. It rewards clear, short spoken explanations of research rather than poster or lecture format, so if you are deciding between submitting a poster and entering the competition, the competition is the better fit when your goal is science communication practice and a general-audience pitch.

Association Awards and Fellows

Beyond meeting-specific recognition, the ACA lists:

• Excellence in Structure — an association-level award.
• Fellows — a designation for members recognized as Fellows.
• Award Nomination Information — a dedicated page explaining how nominations are submitted.
• Current Award Winners — a page listing recent recipients.

The presence of a separate nomination-information page matters: association awards and Fellows are typically driven by nominations from colleagues rather than self-application. If you want to recognize a mentor or collaborator, start with the Award Nomination Information page to see what a nomination package needs, then check Current Award Winners to understand the caliber and range of past recipients. The site does not state nomination deadlines in the material available, so verify timing before assembling a package.

Student Programs Beyond Awards

The site's Outreach & Education section lists additional student-facing programs that are not awards but are relevant if you are looking for training and community:

• Growing Crystals, Growing Curiosity — an outreach-oriented program.
• ACA Summer Institute for Structural Science — a summer educational program.
• Sponsored Programs — programs supported by the association.

For a student deciding where to start, the Summer Institute is the most direct educational offering, while the awards and Travel Grant Program are the routes to recognition and funding at the Annual Meeting. The site does not publish cost, eligibility, or application logistics for these programs in the text available, so treat the program pages as the authoritative source.

How to Decide What to Pursue

Use these conditions to choose:

• You are presenting at the Annual Meeting and need financial help → look at the Travel Grant Program first, and confirm its application timing before committing to travel.
• You are a student giving a talk or poster → the Etter Student Lecturer Award and Poster Prizes are the matching recognition routes.
• You want to build communication skills → the Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition.
• You want to honor a colleague's body of work → the Award Nomination Information page, with Current Award Winners as a reference for what strong nominations look like.
• You want structured training rather than recognition → the ACA Summer Institute for Structural Science.

One caution: the site's navigation mixes meeting awards, association awards, and education programs across several menus, so it is easy to land on the wrong page. Use the "Meeting Awards & Grants" and "Association Awards" groupings as your map, and check each program's own page for the details the overview does not provide.