Symposia
SSE - W.D. Hamilton award symposium
The W. D. Hamilton Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation will be given to a current or very recent graduate student who presents an outstanding talk based on their graduate work at the annual meeting. Finalists will present their talks during the Hamilton Award symposium during the virtual meeting June 2nd-3rd. The application to become a Hamilton award finalist is part of registration for the annual meeting. Applicants must check a box during registration indicating their interest for the Hamilton Award and submit an abstract. For more information, see here.
Organizer: Katy Heath
Date: Friday, June 2nd
Speakers: TBD
Organizer: Katy Heath
Date: Friday, June 2nd
Speakers: TBD
SSB - Ernst Mayr Award symposium
The Ernst Mayr Award is given to the presenter of the outstanding student talk in the field of systematics at the annual meetings of the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB). This is SSB's premier award, and is judged by the quality and creativity of the research completed over the course of the student's Ph.D. program. For more information, see here.
Organizers: SSB Awards Director
Date: Saturday, June 3rd and at the in-person meeting June 21-25.
Speakers: TBD
Organizers: SSB Awards Director
Date: Saturday, June 3rd and at the in-person meeting June 21-25.
Speakers: TBD
SSE EDUCATION AND OUTREACH SYMPOSIUM - Increasing diversity in undergraduate evolution research participation
Organizer: Rich Kliman and Hank Bart
Undergraduate research opportunities come in several forms. They are traditionally associated with engagement in the research program of a senior investigator. Such research may occur during the traditional academic year, at the student's home institution in the summer, or through an internship. Research opportunities can also be obtained through Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) and as postgraduates through NSF’s Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates in Biological Sciences (RaMP) program. It is widely acknowledged that participation in research as an undergraduate can have a major impact on progression to a career in STEM fields. The aim of this symposium is to generate discussion around access to undergraduate research opportunities in evolutionary biology, particularly with regard to increasing participation of students in groups historically underrepresented in the field.
Speakers: TBD
Undergraduate research opportunities come in several forms. They are traditionally associated with engagement in the research program of a senior investigator. Such research may occur during the traditional academic year, at the student's home institution in the summer, or through an internship. Research opportunities can also be obtained through Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) and as postgraduates through NSF’s Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates in Biological Sciences (RaMP) program. It is widely acknowledged that participation in research as an undergraduate can have a major impact on progression to a career in STEM fields. The aim of this symposium is to generate discussion around access to undergraduate research opportunities in evolutionary biology, particularly with regard to increasing participation of students in groups historically underrepresented in the field.
Speakers: TBD
ASN - Innovative tools for evolution education
Organizer: Claire Narraway
Speakers: TBD
Speakers: TBD
ASN VICE presidential symposium - From small-scale processes to large-scale patterns: a mechanistic understanding of emergent properties
Organizer: Priyanga Amarasekare
The large scale patterns of dynamics and diversity we observe in nature ultimately arise from selection acting on phenotypes that themselves are the results of genetic, biochemical and physiological processes that operate at the suborganismal level. A mechanistic understanding of how these suborganismal processes translate into higher level patterns requires integrating information across levels of organization spanning individuals, populations and communities. The speakers will address cutting edge research on this topic, ranging from microbial ecology and evolution to paleobiological perspectives on species interactions.
Speakers: TBD
The large scale patterns of dynamics and diversity we observe in nature ultimately arise from selection acting on phenotypes that themselves are the results of genetic, biochemical and physiological processes that operate at the suborganismal level. A mechanistic understanding of how these suborganismal processes translate into higher level patterns requires integrating information across levels of organization spanning individuals, populations and communities. The speakers will address cutting edge research on this topic, ranging from microbial ecology and evolution to paleobiological perspectives on species interactions.
Speakers: TBD
SSE - Developing culturally relevant and respectful science education, research, and mentorship programs for Diné (Navajo) Students
Organizers: Sterling Martin, Susana Wadgymar, and Joanna Bundus
Many institutions, departments, and research groups in higher education have committed to recruiting members of marginalized communities into STEM fields. These efforts are more likely to succeed if program leaders and organizers understand the unique context in which minoritized recruits have encountered and engaged with science and scientists in their home communities. For instance, Indigenous communities have long endured the active appropriation and eradication of their knowledge, resources, and ways of knowing while simultaneously attending underfunded schools that emphasize western conventions, priorities, and philosophies. As a result, many Indigenous youth gain limited familiarity with western scientific knowledge and don’t perceive careers in STEM as being attainable, relevant, respectful of their culture, or conducive to serving their communities. With a focus on the Diné (Navajo) community, this symposium will describe why successfully attracting and supporting Indigenous students in research or higher ed programs requires acknowledging the historical and contemporary experiences and needs of Indigenous communities. This symposium will also discuss strategies for providing relevant, respectful, and empowering educational, mentorship, and research experiences for Indigenous students.
Many institutions, departments, and research groups in higher education have committed to recruiting members of marginalized communities into STEM fields. These efforts are more likely to succeed if program leaders and organizers understand the unique context in which minoritized recruits have encountered and engaged with science and scientists in their home communities. For instance, Indigenous communities have long endured the active appropriation and eradication of their knowledge, resources, and ways of knowing while simultaneously attending underfunded schools that emphasize western conventions, priorities, and philosophies. As a result, many Indigenous youth gain limited familiarity with western scientific knowledge and don’t perceive careers in STEM as being attainable, relevant, respectful of their culture, or conducive to serving their communities. With a focus on the Diné (Navajo) community, this symposium will describe why successfully attracting and supporting Indigenous students in research or higher ed programs requires acknowledging the historical and contemporary experiences and needs of Indigenous communities. This symposium will also discuss strategies for providing relevant, respectful, and empowering educational, mentorship, and research experiences for Indigenous students.
SSE PRESIDENTIAL SYMPOSIUM - TBD
Organizer: Kelly Zamudio
Speakers: TBD
Speakers: TBD
SSB - Paving the road to the phenome: challenges in working with a large number of phenotypes
Organizer: Daniel Caetano
Genetic sequencing revolutionized evolutionary biology. Sequencing technology has developed at a staggering speed and today it is possible to sequence the entire genome of species. Curiously, evolutionary studies focused on phenotypes have not experienced the same widespread development in data acquisition and analyses. This raises the question of how far are we from a phenomics revolution? It is clear the road towards the phenome will be bumpier than the highway to the genome was. However, today’s advancements in technology for data sampling and data-driven analysis approaches provide a unique opportunity to tackle the challenges of working with the phenome. This symposium aims to synthesize the main challenges in the study of the phenome of organisms. Speakers will share diverse points of view about the ways that a large number of traits can be measured, recorded, distributed, and analyzed. There is much to be learned from phenotypes and we believe the investment to pave the way toward the study of the phenome will greatly overcome the costs.
Speakers: TBD
Genetic sequencing revolutionized evolutionary biology. Sequencing technology has developed at a staggering speed and today it is possible to sequence the entire genome of species. Curiously, evolutionary studies focused on phenotypes have not experienced the same widespread development in data acquisition and analyses. This raises the question of how far are we from a phenomics revolution? It is clear the road towards the phenome will be bumpier than the highway to the genome was. However, today’s advancements in technology for data sampling and data-driven analysis approaches provide a unique opportunity to tackle the challenges of working with the phenome. This symposium aims to synthesize the main challenges in the study of the phenome of organisms. Speakers will share diverse points of view about the ways that a large number of traits can be measured, recorded, distributed, and analyzed. There is much to be learned from phenotypes and we believe the investment to pave the way toward the study of the phenome will greatly overcome the costs.
Speakers: TBD
SSB - Modern biogeographic approaches for integrating complex data across time and space
Organizers: Isaac Lichter Marck and Fábio K.Mendes
Historical biogeography has drastically changed in the last few decades as a result of the proliferation of studies using novel statistical approaches together with new types of empirical datasets. This symposium highlights recent contributions that integrate innovative methodological approaches with natural history. with two major themes: first, synergy between methods development and new empirical datasets and second, studies transcending spatial, temporal, and phylogenetic scales of organization to build a general framework for understanding the distribution of organisms across space and time.
Speakers: TBD
Historical biogeography has drastically changed in the last few decades as a result of the proliferation of studies using novel statistical approaches together with new types of empirical datasets. This symposium highlights recent contributions that integrate innovative methodological approaches with natural history. with two major themes: first, synergy between methods development and new empirical datasets and second, studies transcending spatial, temporal, and phylogenetic scales of organization to build a general framework for understanding the distribution of organisms across space and time.
Speakers: TBD
ASN - early career investigator award symposium
SSE - theodosius dobzhansky prize symposium
SSE - The rebirth of comparative phylogeography
Organizers: Isaac Overcast, Megan Smith, Scott Edwards
There has been some recent speculation that the field of comparative phylogeography is senescing. In the last 10 years, new fields have burgeoned in the comparative analysis of genetic data at much larger spatial (macrogenetics) and genetic (comparative population genomics) scales than traditionally considered in comparative phylogeography. Within the domain of increasingly large spatial, temporal, and taxonomically diverse datasets, does comparative phylogeography remain relevant? We believe that it does, and that the recent plateau in publication activity represents not a diminishing relevance of the questions, but primarily an opportunity for continuing methods development to meet the inherent challenges of scaling up a field that focuses on large multispecies and multiregional data sets. This symposium will highlight recent innovations that meet the demands of increasingly large and complex datasets by focusing on increasing geographic and taxonomic scales, incorporating phenotypic and ecological data, and developing model-based methods for genomic data. In this symposium we hope to inspire the next generation of comparative phylogeographers and to ignite a new wave of high-throughput methodological developments to meet the challenge of investigating co-demographic processes using these new hierarchical, multi-scale, and massive (sub)-community scale genetic/genomic datasets.
Speakers: TBD
There has been some recent speculation that the field of comparative phylogeography is senescing. In the last 10 years, new fields have burgeoned in the comparative analysis of genetic data at much larger spatial (macrogenetics) and genetic (comparative population genomics) scales than traditionally considered in comparative phylogeography. Within the domain of increasingly large spatial, temporal, and taxonomically diverse datasets, does comparative phylogeography remain relevant? We believe that it does, and that the recent plateau in publication activity represents not a diminishing relevance of the questions, but primarily an opportunity for continuing methods development to meet the inherent challenges of scaling up a field that focuses on large multispecies and multiregional data sets. This symposium will highlight recent innovations that meet the demands of increasingly large and complex datasets by focusing on increasing geographic and taxonomic scales, incorporating phenotypic and ecological data, and developing model-based methods for genomic data. In this symposium we hope to inspire the next generation of comparative phylogeographers and to ignite a new wave of high-throughput methodological developments to meet the challenge of investigating co-demographic processes using these new hierarchical, multi-scale, and massive (sub)-community scale genetic/genomic datasets.
Speakers: TBD