Society of Systematic Biologists

A new online presentation sponsored by SSB aims to inform biologists about proposed federal funding for science and how individual scientists can help secure increased funding for competitive, peer-reviewed grant programs. The webinar, presented as part of the 2nd Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event, features information on the federal budget process, pending Congressional appropriations bills that would fund biological research in fiscal year 2011, and tips to help scientists prepare for meetings with lawmakers.

The webinar was presented by policy staff from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) to participants of the 2nd Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event. SSB is a sponsor of the event, which will take place throughout the month of August 2010. This nationwide event was developed to encourage scientists to meet with their members of Congress in their home state in order to showcase the people, equipment, and facilities that are required to support and conduct scientific research.

As a sponsor of this event, SSB is able to offer our members access to a recording of this webinar program until August 31, 2010. The webinar can be viewed for free at http://www.aibs.org/public-policy/congressional_visits_recording.html.

A new online presentation sponsored by SSB aims to inform biologists about proposed federal funding for science and how individual scientists can help secure increased funding for competitive, peer-reviewed grant programs. The webinar, presented as part of the 2nd Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event, features information on the federal budget process, pending Congressional appropriations bills that would fund biological research in fiscal year 2011, and tips to help scientists prepare for meetings with lawmakers.

The webinar was presented by policy staff from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) to participants of the 2nd Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event. SSB is a sponsor of the event, which will take place throughout the month of August 2010. This nationwide event was developed to encourage scientists to meet with their members of Congress in their home state in order to showcase the people, equipment, and facilities that are required to support and conduct scientific research.

As a sponsor of this event, SSB is able to offer our members access to a recording of this webinar program until August 31, 2010. The webinar can be viewed for free at http://www.aibs.org/public-policy/congressional_visits_recording.html.

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. The award consists of $US 1000 and a 2-year free subscription to Systematic Biology. This year's competition at the Portland meetings was very stiff and we congratulate all of the participants. We split the award this year between two awardees: David Winter, Otago University, for his talk, Mayr’s hydra grows another head: could Rarotonga’s Lamprocystis radiation have arisen by sympatric speciation?, and Jeremy Brown, University of California, Berkeley, for his talk, Detecting inadequate Bayesian phylogenetic estimates.

The Society congratulates the winners of the following student awards.

Ernst Mayr Award
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. The award consists of $1000 and a set of available back issues of Systematic Biology. This year's competition at the Idaho meetings included an extraordinary set of talks and we congratulate all of the participants. We actually split the award this year between two awardees:

T. Ryan Gregory has created Evolver Zone, a resource for students, teachers, and researchers with an interest in evolution. The site contains links to multimedia (including a a beginner’s guide to making a phylogenetic tree), software, databases, professional societies, journals, and books, and is supported by sales from it's EZ Store.

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) is now accepting proposals for sabbatical scholars, working groups and catalysis meetings.

• Proposals for postdoctoral fellowships are accepted at the December 1 deadline only.
• Proposals for sabbatical scholars, working groups and catalysis meetings are accepted twice a year, with June 15 and December 1 deadlines.
• Proposals for short-term visitors are considered four times a year, with deadlines on January 1, April 1, July 1 and September 1.

For more information, please see our website at https://www.nescent.org/science/proposals.php.

The Evolution Directory (EvolDir) is a well-known mailing list run by Brian Golding. Now you can follow EvolDir on Twitter to get regular "tweets" about conferences, jobs, software, and other events or developments of interest.

I've also created an RSS feed for EvolDir, so the last three posting will appear on the right hand side of this website (see the heading "EVOLDIR").

Dr. Jason Bond, of East Carolina University, will appear on the TV show "The Colbert Report" the night of Wednesday, August 6th. He promised to name a species of trapdoor spider after Stephen Colbert, which he does in his Systematic Biology August '08 paper, “An integrative method for delimiting cohesion species: finding the population-species interface in a group of Californian trapdoor spiders with extreme genetic divergence and geographic structuring,” co-authored by Amy K. Stockman, also of East Carolina University. The paper will be available from Taylor and Francis free for 6 months.

Bond named a spider after the musician Neil Young earlier this year, Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi, which sparked the attention of Colbert. “Where’s my spider?” Colbert asked on his show. “The world demands an eight-legged tribute to Stephen Colbert, and I do not mean another barbershop quartet.” Jason Bond accepted the challenge in an earlier on-air phone interview, and will appear in person on the 6th along with several live specimens of Colbert's namesake.

The Freunde der Zoologischen Staatssammlung München e.V. (Friends of the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology) have announced the 10th R.J.H. Hintelmann Scientific Award. The prize has the value of €5,000 and its target group is young post-graduate scientists. The price has been awarded
annually since the year 2000 (previous winners can be seen here). Further details are on the annoucement, and can also be obtained from schoenitzer@zsm.mwn.de

Please send applications or nominations until July 15th 2008 to the following address:
Freunde der Zoologischen Staatssammlung München e.V.
R. J. H. Hintelmann-Wissenschaftspreis
Münchhausenstrasse 21
D-81247 München, Germany

The Society of Systematic Biology needs a new and modern logo that represents our inclusive and international efforts to promote the systematic study of biodiversity. We solicit submissions of potential SSB logos from our membership (or potential members!). If you are a creative, artistic systematist, please consider submitting a logo for this competion.

Contest Details:
1) Prize: US$ 500 cash! Plus seeing your artwork on the cover of Syst Biol for years to come!
2) Submission Deadline: April 30, 2008.
3) Where to submit: please e-mail submissions to ssb_apps-mailbox@cornell.edu
4) Submission details: please submit LOW RESOLUTION (200 dpi max) versions of your artwork in JPEG format for initial consideration. If your logo is selected for judging we will request a higher resolution version from you.