IN GOOD COMPANY: David Winter won an international biology award. Photo: Supplied

WAIRARAPA-BORN David Winter has won the Ernst Mayr award, received by only two other New Zealanders  in its history.

Both the other winners have gone on to do well in evolutionary biology, says David, who is studying evolutionary genetics at the University of Otago.

“So it’s very nice to be counted in that company.”

David received the award at the annual meeting of the Society of Systematic Biologists in Portland, Oregon, the largest meeting of evolutionary biologists in the world, attracting 1900 people.

The award is made annually to the student who delivers the most outstanding talk.

David, whose talk was entitled “Mayr’s Hydra grows another head”, shares his award with a mathematician from the University of California, Berkeley.

David’s talk was about the work he has done for his PhD trying to combine genetic, morphological and ecological data to understand how new landsnail species arise.

He received a set of back issues of the journal Systematic Biology, and the two award recipients split the $US1000 prize.

“But the main reward is having it on my CV,” says David.

“I was stoked. I was very happy and very proud. I really don’t know how else to describe it.”