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
SSE Opening Plenary
2025 Lifetime Achievement Plenary
2026 Lifetime Achievement Plenary
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
Details Coming Soon
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.
In-person award plenaries (June 20-24)
2026 Gould Plenary (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.
asn - eARLY CAREER INVESTIGATOR (Date/Time TBD)
The ASN Early Career Investigator Award honors outstanding promise and accomplishments of early-career investigators who conduct integrative work in the fields of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Behavioral Ecology, and Genetics. More information on recipient will be listed here closer to the conference.
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)
(ASN) 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
(SSB) Putting mutations in context: the genomic and environmental impacts on the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations (Date/Time TBD)
Organizer: Frank Stearns