The Society of Systematic Biologists advances the science of systematic biology in all its aspects of theory, principles, methodology, and practice, for both living and fossil organisms, with emphasis on areas of common interest to all systematic biologists regardless of individual specialization.
Recent News
SSB Mentorship Program is Back for Year 2!
SSB is excited to announce that our Mentorship Program will be returning for another year! This program creates mentorship pairs between junior and senior members of the systematics community. Junior members receive guidance (e.g., scientific, professional, etc.) from senior members located at different institutions, while senior members nurture growth in the next generation of systematists. The program pairs graduate students and postdocs (junior members) with more-established members of the systematics community, including faculty, curators, teachers, researchers, etc. (senior members).
Each cohort consists of 20 mentoring pairs, and matches between mentees and mentors will be created based on shared interests. The expected duration of these mentoring pairs is one year. |
Mentors and mentees should meet for one hour per month over video chat (e.g. Zoom). Mentorship might also involve occasional email correspondence for advice and/or friendly peer review.
Enrollment is open to all members of the systematics and phylogenetics community who will meet the program's expectations of participants (described below). Enrollment will remain open until July 5th, 2024.
Enrollment link: https://forms.gle/wuNtG4dJPodXAERVA
Program Overview & Expectations: https://www.systbio.org/mentorship-program.html
For more information, email [email protected].
Enrollment is open to all members of the systematics and phylogenetics community who will meet the program's expectations of participants (described below). Enrollment will remain open until July 5th, 2024.
Enrollment link: https://forms.gle/wuNtG4dJPodXAERVA
Program Overview & Expectations: https://www.systbio.org/mentorship-program.html
For more information, email [email protected].
Calling all student members of SSB!
Are you interested in shaping the future of our Society? If so, we encourage you to apply to become the next SSB Graduate Student Representative.
The application deadline is June 30th.
Description of the SSB Graduate Student Representative Position
The Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) invites nominations for one new graduate student representative (hereafter “grad rep”) to serve on the SSB Council from August 1st, 2024 to July 31st, 2026.
As a member of the SSB Council, the grad rep will play an important role in the functioning of SSB and provide input to help shape the future of the Society. Grad reps help develop initiatives to better serve student members, participate in Council meetings, and engage with student representatives from other societies (e.g., the American Society of Naturalists and the Society for the Study of Evolution).
Grad reps are expected to be active members of SSB, attend the annual Evolution meeting (registration and one night of accommodation are covered by the Society), and serve on the Council for their full 2-year term (extension into postdoctoral work is fine). Voting for the next grad rep will be open to all student members of SSB; non-student members (e.g., faculty) do not vote in grad rep elections.
Application Instructions
Any student member of SSB may nominate themselves. Faculty are also encouraged to nominate student members of SSB, provided the student has given consent to the nomination. Please email nominations to [email protected] with the subject “SSB Student Rep Nomination”.
Nomination materials should include a CV (2 page limit) and a short paragraph (250 word limit) for voters to read describing your academic background, as well as why you want to serve on the Council. You can visit www.systbio.org to learn more about SSB and its activities. Faculty nominations must include the student’s CV and background paragraph as well. Nomination packets should be saved as a single PDF document, with the name of the file in this format: SSBStudentRep_LastName.pdf (where LastName is that of the student).
Our Society has strength in diversity, and we want SSB leadership to reflect the general diversity of our Society, as well as global diversity more broadly. Students who identify as, and/or have a strong record of advocating for, underrepresented individuals in evolutionary biology are highly encouraged to apply.
Are you interested in shaping the future of our Society? If so, we encourage you to apply to become the next SSB Graduate Student Representative.
The application deadline is June 30th.
Description of the SSB Graduate Student Representative Position
The Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) invites nominations for one new graduate student representative (hereafter “grad rep”) to serve on the SSB Council from August 1st, 2024 to July 31st, 2026.
As a member of the SSB Council, the grad rep will play an important role in the functioning of SSB and provide input to help shape the future of the Society. Grad reps help develop initiatives to better serve student members, participate in Council meetings, and engage with student representatives from other societies (e.g., the American Society of Naturalists and the Society for the Study of Evolution).
Grad reps are expected to be active members of SSB, attend the annual Evolution meeting (registration and one night of accommodation are covered by the Society), and serve on the Council for their full 2-year term (extension into postdoctoral work is fine). Voting for the next grad rep will be open to all student members of SSB; non-student members (e.g., faculty) do not vote in grad rep elections.
Application Instructions
Any student member of SSB may nominate themselves. Faculty are also encouraged to nominate student members of SSB, provided the student has given consent to the nomination. Please email nominations to [email protected] with the subject “SSB Student Rep Nomination”.
Nomination materials should include a CV (2 page limit) and a short paragraph (250 word limit) for voters to read describing your academic background, as well as why you want to serve on the Council. You can visit www.systbio.org to learn more about SSB and its activities. Faculty nominations must include the student’s CV and background paragraph as well. Nomination packets should be saved as a single PDF document, with the name of the file in this format: SSBStudentRep_LastName.pdf (where LastName is that of the student).
Our Society has strength in diversity, and we want SSB leadership to reflect the general diversity of our Society, as well as global diversity more broadly. Students who identify as, and/or have a strong record of advocating for, underrepresented individuals in evolutionary biology are highly encouraged to apply.
Welcome Newly Elected SSB Officers and Council Members!
The SSB Council comprises the executive officers, 15 elected councilors, and two graduate student representatives. We are excited to welcome the following newly elected officers and Council members! Thank you so much for your service to the Society.
President-Elect: Jessica Ware
Awards Director: Heath Blackmon
Joint Meeting Committee Representative: Tracy Heath
Graduate Student Representative: Diego Paredes-Burneo
Council Members: Vinita Gowda, Ivalú Cacho, Santiago Claramunt, Matthew Fujita, and Sarah Jacobs
President-Elect: Jessica Ware
Awards Director: Heath Blackmon
Joint Meeting Committee Representative: Tracy Heath
Graduate Student Representative: Diego Paredes-Burneo
Council Members: Vinita Gowda, Ivalú Cacho, Santiago Claramunt, Matthew Fujita, and Sarah Jacobs
Call for Reviewers - SSB Student Awards
SSB is always looking for reviewers for student awards competitions!
These awards include Graduate Student Research Awards, Mini-ARTS awards, and the Ernst Mayr Award. Serving as a reviewer for these award competitions is a critical role in our Society and directly supports early career researchers in systematics.
Please indicate your interest by filling out this form.
These awards include Graduate Student Research Awards, Mini-ARTS awards, and the Ernst Mayr Award. Serving as a reviewer for these award competitions is a critical role in our Society and directly supports early career researchers in systematics.
Please indicate your interest by filling out this form.
Thank you to the organizers of #SSB2023!
The fifth SSB standalone meeting was held on the campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in México City, México on Jan. 14th and 15th, 2023.
#SSB2023 is now over - and what a fantastic meeting it was! Wonderful people, exciting science, and a great location. A huge thank you to all the organizers: Susana Magallón, Santiago Ramírez, Hernán Vázquez, Ricardo García, Alejandro González, Ivalú Cacho, Virginia León, Alejandro Oceguera, Helga Ochoterena, Alejandro Zaldivar, Alejandra Moreno, Arturo Becerra, Pablo Vinuesa SSB is so grateful for all your hard work! |
SSB Legacy Committee
The new SSB Legacy Committee is working to create accessible content about our society's history. The founding members are Chris Simon, Michael Landis, Jim Rohlf, Gary Schnell, and Rosana Zenil-Ferguson. Go here for more information, and expect more soon.
Announcing The Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists
We are pleased to announce that the Society of Systematic Biologists launched a new journal on May 1st, 2021. The Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists (BSSB) will be published in collaboration with the Library Publishing Coalition at The Ohio State University Libraries. This innovative partnership will enable us to publish open access articles at a minimal cost to members of the Society of Systematic Biologists. Articles will be published without article processing charges (APCs) for SSB members. Stay tuned for the first issue of the Bulletin!
The Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists will publish manuscripts that advance our understanding of the Earth's biodiversity, with a special focus on investigations that describe how species are related (i.e., phylogeny), identified (e.g., species delimitation, morphometrics, taxonomic practice), or have evolved (e.g., phylogeography, biogeography, phylogenetic comparative methods). BSSB will also publish manuscripts that advance the theory or methods used in data analysis. Manuscripts will be evaluated on two criteria: the quality of the science and their contribution to our collective understanding of the focal species or clade. BSSB aims to publish investigations that utilize state of the art data analyses and high-quality data sets to achieve these goals.
Code of Conduct
We have a code of conduct at all our meetings; we encourage reporting of issues to members of the joint meeting council or members of our executive committee. All three societies are dedicated to making the meeting a welcoming place to all with no discrimination or harassment. To this end, we have created a form to aggregate the useful suggestions that have come in so far. To provide a suggestion, go here. To see the suggestions so far, please go here (SSB does not vet or approve of these suggestions -- we're merely aggregating them now for future discussion). Note that the form has been populated with public suggestions proposed on Twitter and Facebook so far (though the comments were made associated with names, it's not clear that people want their name associated, so only the first initial is included -- if you want your name included, please contact Brian O'Meara). We'll be doing more moving forward -- this is just a rapid response to capture ideas while they're fresh