Society of Systematic Biologists

Systematics is the study of biological diversity and its origins. It focuses on understanding evolutionary relationships among organisms, species, higher taxa, or other biological entities, such as genes, and the evolution of the properties of taxa including intrinsic traits, ecological interactions, and geographic distributions. An important part of systematics is the development of methods for various aspects of phylogenetic inference and biological nomenclature/classification.

The objective of the Society of Systematic Biologists is the advancement of the science of systematic biology in all its aspects of theory, principles, methodology, and practice, for both living and fossil organisms, with emphasis on areas of common interest to all systematic biologists regardless of individual specialization.

Books recently reviewed in Systematic Biology, or written by members of the Society.

25 July - 6 August 2010, individual research session 6 - 13 August 2010
http://www.molecularevolution.org/workshop
Application Deadline 1 March 2010

The Workshop on Molecular Evolution has been the finest course on the subject since first offered in 1988 in Woods Hole, USA. The Workshop consists of a series of lectures, demonstrations and computer laboratories that cover various aspects of molecular evolution. Faculty are chosen exclusively for their effectiveness in teaching theory and practice in molecular evolution. Included among the faculty are developers and other experts in the use of computer programs and packages such as BLAST, BEAST, Clustal W and Clustal X, FASTA, FigTree, GARLI, Genealogical Sorting Index, LAMARC, MAFFT, MrBayes, PAML, PAUP*, and SeaView who provide demonstrations and consultations. The course is designed for established investigators, postdoctoral scholars, and advanced graduate students with prior experience in molecular evolution and related fields. Scientists with strong interests in molecular evolution, phylogenetics, population genetics, and related fields are encouraged to apply for admission. Lectures and computer laboratories total ~90 hours of scheduled instruction. An optional all-computer laboratory of 54+ hours of independent work with guidance and consultation of some faculty and teaching assistants is offered during the third week. Admission is limited and highly competitive, with admissions decisions determined by an international committee. Participants find the individual research session to be especially useful.

The position
Salary: $73K-$80K (AUD) plus superannuation
Ref. No: 2009/1010 (This is a previously advertised position, previous applicants need not re-apply)
Deadline: 29 January, 2010

Applications are invited for a three-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in molecular phylogenetics. The position will be based at CSIRO Entomology, which is part of the Black Mountain Laboratories in Canberra, Australia. Joining the newly established Bioinformatics and Phylogenomics Laboratory led by Dr Lars Jermiin, the appointee will develop, test and use phylogenetic methods to infer ancestral nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences under general conditions.

A Ph.D. position is available at the Florida Museum of Natural History and in the Department of Biology, University of Florida, under the supervision of Dr. Nico Cellinese.  The successful applicant will work on the systematics, evolution, and biogeography of Mediterranean Campanulaceae.  This work will contribute to a large species-level phylogeny and analysis of pattern of endemism in the Aegean area.  Active interaction with international collaborators and extensive fieldwork in the Aegean Archipelago and surrounding areas are expected.  Candidates must have a strong interest in systematics and evolutionary biology, and prior laboratory experience (e.g., molecular techniques including PCR, cloning, sequencing, etc.) is required. 

3-12 May 2010
Iraklio (Heraklion), Crete
http://cwp.embo.org/pc10-25/

Deadline for applications: 31 January 2010

This EMBO Practical Course aims to provide researchers with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required to carry out molecular evolutionary analysis on their own data and on data drawn from sequence databases. The course will combine basic assumptions and ideas fundamental to the field with discussion of cutting-edge methodologies, and is therefore relevant to researchers with a range of different experience levels.

Erick Matsen is running online phylogenetics seminars at phyloseminar.org. By having a regular online seminars, he hopes to

• provide an international forum for the discussion of phylogenetics methodology to complement that happening at existing meetings
• disseminate information on phylogenetic best practice by having seminars freely viewable by the public
• reduce our carbon footprint by meeting online rather than in person.

The first seminar (by Marc Suchard) has already been held, and on December 7th it's Ward Wheeler's turn. For more details visit phyloseminar.org or subscribe to the mailing list.

A one day meeting on arthropod divergence time estimation is being held at Rutgers University, New Jersey on Friday, January 8, 2010. Registration is free, but space is limited; please pre-register soon so that we will have an idea of numbers, either using Doodle or by emailing Jessica Ware). An official meeting website is coming, but in the meantime you can also visit the meeting's Facebook page.

Have you attended the US Evolution meetings in the past? Do you plan to attend them in the future? If so, we'd like to get your input regarding childcare and MentorNet mentoring programs offered at the conference.

With funding from an Elsevier Foundation New Scholars Grant, on-site childcare and email-based MentorNet mentoring programs were offered for the first time at the Evolution 2009 conference in Moscow, ID, and will be offered at Evolution 2010 (Portland, OR) and Evolution 2011 (Norman, OK).

The survey will take about 5 minutes, and your responses are completely anonymous. Please click Here to take survey.

Thanks for taking the time to help out!

Heidi Meudt & Leah Larkin