SYMPOSIA
Most submitted talks will be scheduled into concurrent sessions (rather than symposia), and will be organized by topic and arranged according to what is submitted. These concurrent sessions will be outlined closer to the conference. A select number of society sponsored symposia will be held at either the in-person or virtual conference, and are outlined below.
Virtual meeting plenaries (May 21-22)
IDEA Award Plenary
Professor Maurine Neiman has spent her career expanding access and inclusion in the evolutionary biology community worldwide. Her impact through science advocacy and communication has been broad and sustained. She has paired her scientific expertise with public-facing vaccine education, helping bring clear, evidence-based messages to wide audiences. She has also used major editorial platforms to open doors for more people to participate fully in our field. As an editor at the Royal Society’s Proceedings B, Dr. Neiman helped build practices that widen participation in publishing and professional networks, with particular attention to creating meaningful opportunities for early-career scientists internationally. Across all of her efforts, she has been a visible, effective champion for a more welcoming and accessible evolution community—one where more scientists can contribute, be heard, and thrive.
2025 Lifetime Achievement Plenary
Naomi Pierce
2026 Lifetime Achievement Plenary
Sam Scheiner
Virtual meeting symposia (May 21-22)
SSE Presidential Symposium - Navigating Uncertainty: Individual Resilience and Collective Action in Evolutionary Biology
Session 1 will focus on the individual: how scientists can respond constructively, creatively, and sustainably in the face of instability. Led by a leadership coach, this interactive talk/workshop will provide tools for managing uncertainty, maintaining clarity of purpose, and identifying personal strategies for resilience and forward movement.
Session 2 will shift to the collective: what can our community do? This session will feature approximately six past SSE Presidents, each giving a 5-minute lightning talk offering concrete, actionable ideas for maintaining research programs, supporting trainees, and strengthening the field during periods of funding constraint. The emphasis will be on practical recommendations at multiple scales—individual researchers, departments, universities, the society, and the field as a whole.
Session 2 will shift to the collective: what can our community do? This session will feature approximately six past SSE Presidents, each giving a 5-minute lightning talk offering concrete, actionable ideas for maintaining research programs, supporting trainees, and strengthening the field during periods of funding constraint. The emphasis will be on practical recommendations at multiple scales—individual researchers, departments, universities, the society, and the field as a whole.
SSE - Virtual SYMPOSIUM/Research Group (budding/Asymmetric Speciation)
Organizers: Bruno do Rosario Petrucci and Matheus Januario
Description:
Budding, or asymmetric speciation, is a speciation mode where the mother species persists, instead of dissolving into two new lineages. Budding speciation is widely recognized in paleontology but remains inconsistently incorporated across most areas of evolutionary biology focused on living organisms. This working group is novel in uniting researchers from macroevolution, phylogenetics, paleontology, phylodynamics, and population genetics to build the first truly cross-disciplinary joint effort for understanding how budding affects our view of the tree of life. By integrating theory, fossil data, molecular phylogenies, and emerging modeling approaches, our symposium will synthesize perspectives that are often insularized within each respective field, creating a shared conceptual foundation for studying asymmetric speciation.
Description:
Budding, or asymmetric speciation, is a speciation mode where the mother species persists, instead of dissolving into two new lineages. Budding speciation is widely recognized in paleontology but remains inconsistently incorporated across most areas of evolutionary biology focused on living organisms. This working group is novel in uniting researchers from macroevolution, phylogenetics, paleontology, phylodynamics, and population genetics to build the first truly cross-disciplinary joint effort for understanding how budding affects our view of the tree of life. By integrating theory, fossil data, molecular phylogenies, and emerging modeling approaches, our symposium will synthesize perspectives that are often insularized within each respective field, creating a shared conceptual foundation for studying asymmetric speciation.
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. The application to become a Mayr award finalist is part of abstract submission for the annual meeting, following registration. Applicants must check a box during submission of an abstract to the virtual talk submission module. For more information, see here.
Organizer: SSB Awards Director
Organizer: SSB Awards Director
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. The application to become a Hamilton award finalist is part of abstract submission for the annual meeting, following registration. Applicants must check a box during submission of an abstract to the virtual talk submission module. For more information, see here.
ASN - Putting mutations in context: the genomic and environmental impacts on the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations
Summary:
Mutations are the ultimate source of heritable variation for the maintenance and generation of biodiversity. Therefore, they are important across evolution, ecology, and behavior and affect all organisms. The effects of new mutations on fitness have long been considered primarily deleterious. However, recent work using new methods of estimating the distribution of mutation effects on fitness have resulted in a higher beneficial mutation rate than previously expected. This has dramatically changed the way in which new mutations are thought to contribute to adaptation and therefore requires new explanatory frameworks. Theoretical and empirical work has addressed this in part by putting the fitness effects of mutations in context, both environmental context and genetic context. This proposed symposium will bring together researchers who have recent data bearing on the beneficial mutation rate with those that have suggested explanations for the observed rates.
Organizer: Frank W. Stearns, Stevenson University
Speakers:
Frank Stearns
Deepa Agashe
David McCandlish
Siliang Song
Charles Fenster
Matthew Rutter
Mutations are the ultimate source of heritable variation for the maintenance and generation of biodiversity. Therefore, they are important across evolution, ecology, and behavior and affect all organisms. The effects of new mutations on fitness have long been considered primarily deleterious. However, recent work using new methods of estimating the distribution of mutation effects on fitness have resulted in a higher beneficial mutation rate than previously expected. This has dramatically changed the way in which new mutations are thought to contribute to adaptation and therefore requires new explanatory frameworks. Theoretical and empirical work has addressed this in part by putting the fitness effects of mutations in context, both environmental context and genetic context. This proposed symposium will bring together researchers who have recent data bearing on the beneficial mutation rate with those that have suggested explanations for the observed rates.
Organizer: Frank W. Stearns, Stevenson University
Speakers:
Frank Stearns
Deepa Agashe
David McCandlish
Siliang Song
Charles Fenster
Matthew Rutter
ASN - Student Research Award Symposium
Summary:
This symposium highlights the research of past winners of ASN’s Graduate Student Research Award.
Organizer: Dylan Padilla, ASN Graduate Council
Speakers:
Takuji Usui
Matthew Kustra
Nitin Ravikanthachari
Julia Harenčár
Taylor Zallek
This symposium highlights the research of past winners of ASN’s Graduate Student Research Award.
Organizer: Dylan Padilla, ASN Graduate Council
Speakers:
Takuji Usui
Matthew Kustra
Nitin Ravikanthachari
Julia Harenčár
Taylor Zallek
In-person award plenaries (June 20-24)
2026 Gould Plenary: Dr. Neil H. Shubin (June 20 - 7 pm)
The Stephen Jay Gould Prize is awarded every three years to recognize individuals whose sustained and exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance in biology, education, and everyday life in the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould.
The SSE Gould Prize Committee is pleased to announce Dr. Neil H. Shubin as the 2026 recipient of the Stephen Jay Gould Prize. Dr. Shubin was selected for both his exceptional record of research and his influential work in advancing public understanding of evolution.
Dr. Shubin’s discovery of Tiktaalik roseae was field-changing, providing new and transformative insight into the transition of our vertebrate ancestors from water to land. His ongoing work continues to shed light on the origins of diversity in vertebrates, bridging paleontology, developmental biology, and genomics. Importantly, he has made evolution accessible—translating these ground-breaking discoveries into personal experiences for the public by connecting our deep evolutionary past and our own bodies.
Dr. Shubin has authored four major books, including “Your Inner Fish” (2008) which spent ten weeks on the NYT bestseller list and was the subject of the PBS series “Your Inner Fish.” The series brought evolutionary biology into the homes of millions across America and was awarded an Emmy Award for News and Documentary as well as the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award.
Beyond his writing, Dr. Shubin is active in outreach and engagement at all levels, bringing his gift for storytelling to K-12 classrooms, museums, community colleges, and universities. Dr. Shubin has been honored for his work with the Friend of Darwin Award from the National Center for Science Education (2014) and the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the Society for Developmental Biology (2024).
Dr. Shubin is the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Anatomy and Vice Dean of the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. He teaches courses in Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology including a course for non-majors, “‘Your Inner Fish’: The Deep History of the Human Body.” He is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A fellow of the National Academy of Sciences since 2011, Dr. Shubin has been elected to serve as the next President and will begin his term in July 2026.
The SSE Gould Prize Committee is pleased to announce Dr. Neil H. Shubin as the 2026 recipient of the Stephen Jay Gould Prize. Dr. Shubin was selected for both his exceptional record of research and his influential work in advancing public understanding of evolution.
Dr. Shubin’s discovery of Tiktaalik roseae was field-changing, providing new and transformative insight into the transition of our vertebrate ancestors from water to land. His ongoing work continues to shed light on the origins of diversity in vertebrates, bridging paleontology, developmental biology, and genomics. Importantly, he has made evolution accessible—translating these ground-breaking discoveries into personal experiences for the public by connecting our deep evolutionary past and our own bodies.
Dr. Shubin has authored four major books, including “Your Inner Fish” (2008) which spent ten weeks on the NYT bestseller list and was the subject of the PBS series “Your Inner Fish.” The series brought evolutionary biology into the homes of millions across America and was awarded an Emmy Award for News and Documentary as well as the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award.
Beyond his writing, Dr. Shubin is active in outreach and engagement at all levels, bringing his gift for storytelling to K-12 classrooms, museums, community colleges, and universities. Dr. Shubin has been honored for his work with the Friend of Darwin Award from the National Center for Science Education (2014) and the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the Society for Developmental Biology (2024).
Dr. Shubin is the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Anatomy and Vice Dean of the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. He teaches courses in Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology including a course for non-majors, “‘Your Inner Fish’: The Deep History of the Human Body.” He is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A fellow of the National Academy of Sciences since 2011, Dr. Shubin has been elected to serve as the next President and will begin his term in July 2026.
asn - eARLY CAREER INVESTIGATOR Awards (Date/Time TBD)
Summary:
The ASN Early Career Investigator Award honors outstanding promise and accomplishments of early career investigators (3 years post-PhD, or in the final year of their PhD) who conduct integrative work in ecology, evolution, behavioral ecology, and genetics. The award was established in memory of Jasper Loftus-Hills (1946-1974), an Australian biologist of exceptional promise who died tragically during the course of fieldwork three years after receiving his degree.
Organizer: Jean-Philippe Gilbert
Speakers:
Erin Westeen
Brooke Bodensteiner
Tomas Kay
Patrick McKenzie
The ASN Early Career Investigator Award honors outstanding promise and accomplishments of early career investigators (3 years post-PhD, or in the final year of their PhD) who conduct integrative work in ecology, evolution, behavioral ecology, and genetics. The award was established in memory of Jasper Loftus-Hills (1946-1974), an Australian biologist of exceptional promise who died tragically during the course of fieldwork three years after receiving his degree.
Organizer: Jean-Philippe Gilbert
Speakers:
Erin Westeen
Brooke Bodensteiner
Tomas Kay
Patrick McKenzie
sse - DOBZHANSKY (Date/Time TBD)
The Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding early-career evolutionary biologist. The prize was established in memory of Professor Theodosius Dobzhansky by his friends and colleagues, and reflects his lifelong commitment to fostering the research careers of young scientists. More information on recipient will be listed here closer to the conference.
Society-led in-person symposia (June 20-24)
(SSB) Genetic diversity in ecological communities: A new biodiversity pattern that unifies ecological and evolutionary timescales (Date/Time TBD)
In this symposium, we highlight research leveraging the Community Genetic Distribution (CGD), which simultaneously captures among- and within-taxa components of whole-community biodiversity. Bringing together empirical case studies and theoretical models reveals how multi-scale ecological and evolutionary processes shape the CGD, and how statistical tools and machine learning approaches can be used to extract biodiversity insight from this emerging biodiversity pattern.
Organizers:
Isaac Overcast (Columbia University; on behalf of co-organizers)
Arianna Kuhn (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Deren Eaton (Columbia University)
Rosemary Gillespie (University of California Berkeley)
Organizers:
Isaac Overcast (Columbia University; on behalf of co-organizers)
Arianna Kuhn (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Deren Eaton (Columbia University)
Rosemary Gillespie (University of California Berkeley)
(SSE) Impacts of Genome Architecture on Polygenic Adaptation during Rapid Environmental Change (Time/Date TBD)
Organizers: Carol Eunmi Lee, Teresa Popp, Davorka Gulisija
In the current Anthropocene Epoch, we are witnessing rapid transformations of environmental conditions, such as climate warming, ocean acidification, salinity change, oxygen limitation, and pollution. The majority of physiological and behavioral traits responding to such stressors are polygenic, involving many genes, yet the genomic mechanisms that enable the rapid evolution of polygenic phenotypes remain elusive. With the recent proliferation of genomic data, we now have the ability to dissect and understand genome-wide polygenic responses at much greater depth and detail. Yet, we are only beginning to understand how genome architecture shapes evolutionary responses to environmental change, especially for polygenic traits. Various features of the genome can impact how selection acts on adaptive loci, such as the positions of genes in the genome, linkage among adaptive alleles, expansions of gene families, and chromosomal architecture arising from fusions, fissions, and inversions. Such genomic features are likely to affect gene regulation, co-inheritance of adaptive alleles, and gene-gene interactions. Thus, understanding the role of genome architecture is fundamental to uncovering mechanisms of polygenic adaptation and responses to rapid environmental change.
This symposium and working group topic is timely and unique, as the role of genome architecture, especially structural genome architecture, remains a relatively uncharted territory. Yet, this topic is profoundly important for understanding adaptive evolution involving polygenic traits, including physiological, morphological, and behavioral traits. Studies have typically examined polygenic adaptation and genomic architecture separately, without considering how genomic architecture could impact polygenic adaptation. The goal here is to generate a novel synthesis linking genome architecture with its impacts on polygenic adaptation.
In this symposium, we will bring together investigators exploring various aspects of genome architecture and their impacts on adaptive responses and mechanisms of polygenic adaptation. Through the presentation of our data and exchange of ideas, we will strive to gain novel insights into how genomic architecture shapes the evolutionary responses of populations, especially in the face of rapid global change.
Speakers:
Scott Edwards (Professor) Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
Population genomics and adaptive significance of structural variation across the Tree of Life for songbirds
Sean Chen (Associate Professor) Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Genome architecture of 75 arthropod species - Why larger genomes aren't always AT-rich and the compensating role of chromosome number
Zhenyong Du (Postdoc) University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Chromosomal fusions linked to adaptive evolution in an invasive copepod species complex
Alan Bergland (Assistant Professor) University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
A cosmopolitan inversion captures the polygenic architecture underlying a foraging-survival trade-off in D. melanogaster.
Soojin Yi (Professor) University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Evolution of DNA methylation in invertebrate animals - cell type plasticity and aging associated changes
Davorka Gulisija (Assistant Professor): University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Evolution of the genetic architecture underlying phenotypic plasticity
Mark Kirkpatrick (Professor) University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA
Title: TBA
Carol Eunmi Lee (Professor) University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Impacts of genome architecture on mechanisms of parallel adaptation during rapid environmental change, and concluding remarks
In the current Anthropocene Epoch, we are witnessing rapid transformations of environmental conditions, such as climate warming, ocean acidification, salinity change, oxygen limitation, and pollution. The majority of physiological and behavioral traits responding to such stressors are polygenic, involving many genes, yet the genomic mechanisms that enable the rapid evolution of polygenic phenotypes remain elusive. With the recent proliferation of genomic data, we now have the ability to dissect and understand genome-wide polygenic responses at much greater depth and detail. Yet, we are only beginning to understand how genome architecture shapes evolutionary responses to environmental change, especially for polygenic traits. Various features of the genome can impact how selection acts on adaptive loci, such as the positions of genes in the genome, linkage among adaptive alleles, expansions of gene families, and chromosomal architecture arising from fusions, fissions, and inversions. Such genomic features are likely to affect gene regulation, co-inheritance of adaptive alleles, and gene-gene interactions. Thus, understanding the role of genome architecture is fundamental to uncovering mechanisms of polygenic adaptation and responses to rapid environmental change.
This symposium and working group topic is timely and unique, as the role of genome architecture, especially structural genome architecture, remains a relatively uncharted territory. Yet, this topic is profoundly important for understanding adaptive evolution involving polygenic traits, including physiological, morphological, and behavioral traits. Studies have typically examined polygenic adaptation and genomic architecture separately, without considering how genomic architecture could impact polygenic adaptation. The goal here is to generate a novel synthesis linking genome architecture with its impacts on polygenic adaptation.
In this symposium, we will bring together investigators exploring various aspects of genome architecture and their impacts on adaptive responses and mechanisms of polygenic adaptation. Through the presentation of our data and exchange of ideas, we will strive to gain novel insights into how genomic architecture shapes the evolutionary responses of populations, especially in the face of rapid global change.
Speakers:
Scott Edwards (Professor) Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
Population genomics and adaptive significance of structural variation across the Tree of Life for songbirds
Sean Chen (Associate Professor) Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
Genome architecture of 75 arthropod species - Why larger genomes aren't always AT-rich and the compensating role of chromosome number
Zhenyong Du (Postdoc) University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Chromosomal fusions linked to adaptive evolution in an invasive copepod species complex
Alan Bergland (Assistant Professor) University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
A cosmopolitan inversion captures the polygenic architecture underlying a foraging-survival trade-off in D. melanogaster.
Soojin Yi (Professor) University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Evolution of DNA methylation in invertebrate animals - cell type plasticity and aging associated changes
Davorka Gulisija (Assistant Professor): University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Evolution of the genetic architecture underlying phenotypic plasticity
Mark Kirkpatrick (Professor) University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA
Title: TBA
Carol Eunmi Lee (Professor) University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Impacts of genome architecture on mechanisms of parallel adaptation during rapid environmental change, and concluding remarks
(ASN) Vice presidential Symposia: Evolutionary dynamics across scales (date/time TBD)
Summary:
This symposium brings together researchers that explicitly study dynamical processes on a variety of systems across biological scales with the goal to shed light on general principles that transcend these scales. The symposium will explore how complex systems approaches can help us understand, not just evolutionary change, but also stability. Invited speakers incorporate perspectives from a diversity of organisms and subfields, highlighting the importance of feedback and nonlinear dynamics to understand evolutionary change.
Organizer: Renée A. Duckworth, ASN Vice President and Symposium Organizer
Speakers, affiliations, and titles
This symposium brings together researchers that explicitly study dynamical processes on a variety of systems across biological scales with the goal to shed light on general principles that transcend these scales. The symposium will explore how complex systems approaches can help us understand, not just evolutionary change, but also stability. Invited speakers incorporate perspectives from a diversity of organisms and subfields, highlighting the importance of feedback and nonlinear dynamics to understand evolutionary change.
Organizer: Renée A. Duckworth, ASN Vice President and Symposium Organizer
Speakers, affiliations, and titles
- Renée A. Duckworth, ASN Vice President and Symposium Organizer
- Title: Evolution unfolding: How flexible responses maintain stability and drive change
- Eugene V. Koonin, NIH Distinguished Investigator at the National Center for Biotechnology Information and National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD USA
- Title: Origin of life from the multilevel selection perspective
- Alexander V. Badyaev, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ USA
- Title: On the space between Chance and Necessity: Specific outcomes without specific regulators in evolution
- Julia B. Saltz, Associate Professor of Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN USA
- Title: Social feedbacks alter the genomic consequences of evolution
- Rachel M. Germain, Associate Professor of Zoology at the University of British Columbia, BC Canada
- Title: Niche theory as an underutilized resource for innovation in evolutionary biology: empirical examples that cross evolutionary scales
- David Jablonski, Distinguished Service Professor of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, IL USA
- Title: TBA
- Title: TBA
- Stewart M. Eadie, Geologist and Curator at the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC USA
- Title: Losses, gains, and restructuring of biodiversity currencies: mass extinctions and the times between