Society of Systematic Biologists

We are pleased to announce the 3rd Annual Spring Symposium hosted by Frontiers in Phylogenetics at NMNH: "Genome-scale Phylogenetics"

Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC, Monday May 20, 2013

Baird Auditorium
National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC
Sunday May 20, 2012, 9 AM to 5 PM

TOPICS and SPEAKERS

• Introduction and Welcome to the Smithsonian Jonathan Coddington, Associate Director of Research and Collections, NMNH
• An Overview of Multiple Sequence Alignment Methods Kazutaka Katoh, IFReC, Osaka University, Japan; CBRC, AIST, Japan.
• Phylogenomics Across the Green Plant Tree of Life Jim Leebens-Mack, University of Georgia
• Bayesian Co-estimation of Alignment and Phylogeny Ben Redelings, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCENT)
• Phylogeny-aware Progressive Sequence Alignment Ari Löytynoja, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Finland
• SATe: Simultaneous Alignment and Tree Estimation for Large Datasets Tandy Warnow, University of Texas at Austin
• Fast and Accurate Multiple Sequence/Structure Alignment Using MAFFTash Daron Standley, Systems Immunology Lab, Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC), Osaka University
• A Simple Insertion-­Deletion Mixture Model for Phylogenetic Inference Derrick Zwickl, University of Arizona
• Impact of DNA Sequence Alignment on Estimates of the Avian Tree of Life Michael Braun, National Museum of Natural History

Registration is free but required. Please send name, affiliation, e-mail and phone number to Sarah Kingston (kingstons 'at' si.edu).

The organizing committee is pleased to announce the 3rd Moscow international conference on molecular phylogenetics, «Molecular Phylogenetics MolPhy-3», which will take place at the New School Building of Moscow State University, 31 July - 4 August 2012.

The conference mission is to provide a stimulating platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences in contemporary phylogenetics, molecular evolution and bioinformatics, and for developing methodology, algorithms, and applications for state-of-the-art analyses of molecular genetic data. The primary scope is in molecular phylogenetics and systematics, phyloinformatics, evolutionary genomics, reconstructing the Tree of Life, and applied phylogenetics.

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.).

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).

The Society of Systematic Biologists invites proposals for symposia at the 2012 Evolution meeting to be held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada from 6-10 July 2012.

Deadline: for full consideration, please submit proposals by Sept 15, 2011.

Proposals should include (1) a descriptive title, (2) one or two paragraphs explaining the purpose of the symposium and its relevance to systematics, (3) a list of presentations including proposed speakers, their institutions or affiliations, and their presentation titles, and (4) an indication of whether the speakers have been invited and whether they have agreed to participate.

Registration and abstract submission for the ���?Deep Metazoan Phylogeny 2011 ��" new data, newchallenges" conference, to be held from October 11-14, 2011 at the University of Munich (Germany) closes on July 1, 2011, midnightCEST (UTC + 2)!* (about 14 days from now!)

Full list of confirmed keynote speakers can be found at
http://www.palmuc.de/dmp2011, and you can register and submit your abstract directly at: https://www.conftool.com/dmp2011/

We are pleased to announce that registration is open for the 8th biennial conference of the Systematics Association, held for the first time in Northern Ireland! There is an exciting programme that includes both plenaries and thematic symposia, as well as a large number of contributed sessions. Currently scheduled symposia include:

• Next Generation Systematics - Studying Evolution and Diversity in an Era of Ubiquitous Genomics
• Arthropod Systematics: are Morphology, Palaeontology and Molecules Coming Together?
• Algal Systematics: Where Next?
• Advances in Using Museum Specimens and Ancient DNA in Systematics Research

Symposia will include a mixture of talks from invited speakers and other contributions. The Biennial also presents excellent opportunities for contributed papers on any aspect of systematics and is a great forum for students and young researchers to present their work. For further details, please see http://www.systass.org/biennial2011/.

The conference will cover the contribution of Pacific biogeographic research to the fields of ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. There will be 5 symposia, contributed papers and posters over three days (May 27-29), with optional pre-meeting workshops on May 26th and fieldtrips beginning on May 30th. The symposia will focus on the questions listed below:

1. What within-lineage biogeographic patterns are found across the Pacific?
2. Are there common patterns of evolutionary diversification among lineages across the disparate island systems of the Pacific?
3. How do different plant and animal populations interact through time to form novel island ecosystems?
4. How have people influenced the terrestrial and near-shore environments of Pacific islands?
5. How does knowledge of the evolution of Pacific Island biota contribute to the conservation of island (and continental) ecosystems?

For details visit http://botany.si.edu/events/2011_pacific/.

Registration and abstract submission for the international conference "Deep Metazoan Phylogeny 2011 ��" new data, new challenges", to be held from October 11-14, 2011 at the University of Munich (Germany) is now open!

The conference will bring together mathematicians, theoreticians, molecular systematists, and morphologists that aim at resolving deep branches in the animal tree of life for a better understanding of the evolution and diversification of multicellular life on Earth.

During the conference, new data, new analytical tools and new results will be discussed. Challenges and pitfalls in phylogeny reconstruction based on molecular and/or morphological data will be identified, aiming for a critical and constructive view of the state of the art of the metazoan tree of life.