Spallanzani Award

The Spallanzani Award assists distinguished bat researchers from outside North America to attend the North American Symposium on Bat Research. Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729 -1799) was an Italian biologist and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of anatomy and physiology, animal reproduction, and was instrumental in discovering the mechanism of animal echolocation. Spallanzani is famous for extensive experiments on bat navigation in complete darkness. He concluded that bats use sound and their ears for navigation.  Spallanzani investigated each individual sense, trying to discover which governed bat navigation. Through the process of elimination, he found that plugging a bat's ears rendered it directionless. Spallanzani's hypothesis of echolocation ability of bats wasn't fully explained for well over a century when in 1941, when Donald R. Griffin first described bat's sensitivity to sound waves. 

To nominate someone for the Spallanzani Award, see details at NASBR Awards.