Society of Systematic Biologists

Olivier Gascuel and Jean-Michel Marin are co-=chairing a meeting on Mathematical and Computational Evolutionary Biology to be held June 18-22 at Hameau de l'Etoile in France. See website (http://www.lirmm.fr/mceb2012/) for details.

The subject is evolution, which is considered at different scales, from genes to populations. The focus is on the mathematical and computational tools and concepts, which form an essential basis of evolutionary studies. The rise of sound statistical and combinatorial approaches in evolutionary biology has seen considerable improvements of the original ad hoc methods and the ability of the new methods and algorithms to handle ever-larger data sets. Such advances involve increasingly sophisticated mathematical treatment of the problems at hand and the reliance on faster algorithms and powerful computers to answer important biological questions. To present these advances and to discuss open questions and problems, the meeting will bring together researchers originating from various disciplines: mathematics, computer science, phylogenetics and population genetics. Ten keynote speakers, two each morning, will introduce a field of research and discuss their own work in this field. Afternoon will be for short presentations and posters, with plenty of time for discussions. We will stop early every day, thus leaving time for hiking and visits. The number of attendees will be limited to favor exchanges (~60).