Society of Systematic Biologists

10 October 2012, Amphitheater of the INEE, 3 rue Michel-Ange, 75016 Paris.
The next annual meeting of the Société Française de Systématique (SFS ; http://sfs.snv.jussieu.fr/) will address the issue of "Systematics beyond phylogenetics". The meeting will emphasize the central but often underestimated role that phylogenies (and hence, systematics) play in modern evolutionary and comparative biology, through various techniques and in many fields (conservation biology, nomenclature, evo-devo, molecular evolution, etc.).

The themes of the sessions will include the following (preliminary list of a few participants who have already agreed to participate in parentheses):

• Biological nomenclature (A. Dubois, Paris; debate on the role of the phylogeny in nomenclature)
• Phylogeny and horizontal gene transfer: are there bacterial species? (A. Oren, Jerusalem)
• Biodiversity assessment and conservation
• Ecological niche conservatism
• Biogeography
• Evo-devo (M. Sanchez-Villagra, Zurich)
• Molecular evolution (P. Pontarotti, Marseille; S. Delgado, Paris)
• Molecular and paleontological dating: applications (Sauquet)
• Medicine (H. Smith, Glendale, AZ)
• Character correlation and comparative biology (J. Cubo, Paris; J.-Y. Dubuisson, Paris)
• Evolutionary trends (M. Laurin, Paris)
• Paleobiology (C. Organ, Harvard; A. Canoville, Capetown)

The talks and posters of the thematic sessions will present new, interesting results (without being too specialized, given the broad audience), but will also show how phylogenies are required in various evolutionary or comparative studies, and how they can be taken into account in the analyses. The variety of topics will give participants a global view of the contributions of systematics to a wide range of biological fields. Duration of talks will be from 20 to 25 minutes, thus leaving 5 to 10 minutes for questions and discussions (total duration: 30 minutes per speaker). The language will be French or English, ideally with the text of the slides in one language, and the talk itself in the other, to enable all to follow.
We wish to publish a written version of the communications, either in English, for research articles or high-level reviews (provided that similar reviews have not been published recently), in a special issue of the Comptes Rendus Palevol (journal indexed by all important databases, including those of the ISI), or more popular papers, in French, in an issue of Biosystema. Prospective speakers should indicate their preference when they send the abstract of their talk (they may also opt to submit two drafts, one for the CR Palevol and the other for Biosystema, while avoiding that one be a simple translation of the other). Ideally, the meeting will generate both publications (a special issue of CR Palevol and an issue of Biosystema).

I would be happy to see you at the meeting. Please send the title of your proposed talk or poster to the SFS Secretary (Jean-Yves Dubuisson, jdubuiss@snv.jussieu.fr) at your convenience, and the payment for the registration fees to the SFS Treasurer (Christophe Daugeron, daugeron@mnhn.fr).
Sincerely,
Michel Laurin
President of the Organizing Committee