Society of Systematic Biologists

Please see below for the most recent, up-to-date information on submitting your talk for competition in the Mayr Symposium.

General Information. 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 award consists of $1000, a certificate of distinction, and a two-year subscription to the journal Systematic Biology.

Web site

Organizers
Olivier Gascuel (CNRS, Montpellier)
Mike Steel (Univ. Canterbury, Christchurch)

Theme
This conference follows a similar workshop that was held in June 2003. The subject is evolution, which is considered at different scales: sequences, genes, gene families, organelles, genomes, and species. The focus is on the mathematical and computational tools and concepts, which form an essential basis of evolutionary studies.

The 85th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists will be held 15-19 June, 2005 at Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri. In addition to contributed oral and poster presentations covering all aspects of mammalian biology, this year's program will feature "Adaptive Evolution in Mammalian Populations", a symposium convened by Drs. Hopi Hoekstra and Jay Storz and "Careers in Mammalogy", a workshop led by Drs. Deidre Parish and Greg Wilson. Special addresses will be offered by the recipients of the Joseph Grinnell (Dr. Norman A. Slade) and C. Hart Merriam (Dr. O.J. Reichman) awards, as well as by student honorees.

NSF Tree of Life program with deadline March 28, 2005.

From the web site:

Synopsis of Program:

A flood of new information, from whole-genome sequences to detailed structural information to inventories of earth's biota, is transforming 21st century biology. Along with comparative data on morphology, fossils, development, behavior, and interactions of all forms of life on earth, these new data streams make even more critical the need for an organizing framework for information retrieval, analysis, and prediction. Phylogeny, the genealogical map for all lineages of life on earth, provides an overall framework to facilitate information retrieval and biological prediction.

From PLoS Biology:

Prior to human settlement 700 years ago New Zealand had no terrestrial mammalsâ�"apart from three species of batsâ�"instead, approximately 250 avian species dominated the ecosystem. At the top of the food chain was the extinct Haast's eagle, Harpagornis moorei. H. moorei (10â�"15 kg; 2â�"3 m wingspan) was 30%â�"40% heavier than the largest extant eagle (the harpy eagle, Harpia harpyja), and hunted moa up to 15 times its weight.