GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 728 - 582 - 455 - 368 - 292 out of 228 candidates registered. I am in second place.
If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about it for the public on a blog. Here is my 300-word essay; hopefully, you will agree that I am a very well-qualified candidate for this job opportunity. Voting ends 30 September and there is one vote allowed per valid email address (registration required).
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Comments
I don't know if this helps you, or if someone else has already pointed this out, but I've figured out why there are so many reports of people being unable to register to vote (i.e. when signing up on the site, no confirmation email arrives).
The fault is that of whoever set up the confirmation mailing script; it makes no attempt to provide a valid sender address, instead setting the sender to <serveradmin@someurl.com> (obviously a default that someone forgot to configure) which means that the majority of mail systems will refuse to accept the mail since the sender address does not resolve.
Posted by: Andrew | July 5, 2009 8:06 AM
Oh, to clarify, the faulty address is the envelope sender, not the From: (or Sender:) address. (They are not the same thing, but the distinction is often missed by people not familiar with the inner workings of email.)
Posted by: Andrew | July 5, 2009 8:14 AM
Thanks for finding that. I had to call in to get my entry registration approved.
It's been a blast to browse through the other entries and I'm starting to realize I just want to meet and hang out with everybody that is entering this contest!
I'm slowly collecting my votes and am probably overly optimistic that I will be able to get within range of the leaders, but 'ya got to be in it to win it'.
Ciao!
Posted by: Cameron | July 12, 2009 12:36 PM