Evolution in Action
Monte Verità, Strada Collina 84, 6612 Ascona, Switzerland
Web Address
https://www.evolution.uzh.ch/en/conference.html
Registration
General Information
The International Conference Evolution in Action brings together researchers with a common interest in genomic technologies and their application to evolutionary questions.
Evolutionary biology plays a central role in understanding mechanisms and processes that shape biological systems. Despite its relevance for many scientific fields, researchers addressing evolutionary questions often work somewhat isolated in their respective discipline, discouraging interdisciplinary discussions.
The genomic revolution has strongly altered the research field of evolutionary biology. Sequencing technologies have become so powerful and affordable that the genetic variability of entire genomes and even of many individuals can be directly studied. Such approaches enable research especially on rapid evolutionary changes and are key to understanding, e.g., the evolution of human, animal, and plant pathogens, domestication principles, and processes underlying rapid adaptation. These are socially important topics, as seen for example in the speedy emergence of virus variants in SARS-CoV-2 or the adaptation of wild species and crops to climate change.
With this conference, we aim to facilitate interdisciplinary research integrating biology, medicine, agricultural, and computer sciences to address evolutionary questions that are relevant to our changing world and society.
Meeting organisers:
University Research Priority Program Evolution in Action: From Genomes to Ecosystems
University of Zurich
c/o Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
Zollikerstrasse 107
8008 Zurich
Switzerland
Speakers:
Keynote Anthropological Genetics
Anne Stone
Regent’s Professor, Arizona State University, USA
Keynote Evolution of Plant Reproductive Traits
George Coupland
Professor of Reproductive development and the evolution of perennial life history, Director of the Department of Plant Developmental Biology, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany
Session 1 Pathogen Evolution
Francois Balloux
Professor of Computational Systems Biology, Director of the UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, UK
Eva H Stukenbrock
Max Planck Professor of Environmental Genomics, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel and Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Germany
Session 2 Polyploidy & Epigenetic Variation
Zengjian Jeffrey Chen
J. Sibley Centennial Professor of Plant Molecular Genetics, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Yoav Soen
Professor of Adaptive Plasticity, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Session 3 Domestication
Takao Komatsuda
Professor, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
Esther van der Knaap
Professor, University of Georgia, USA
Session 4 Emerging Trends in Evolution
Tal Dagan
Professor of Evolutionary Microbiology, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Germany
Tulio de Oliveira
Professor of Bioinformatics, Director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, Director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Session 5 Adaptation to Changing Environments
Hernán Burbano
Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Associate Professor of Ancient Plant Genomics, University College London, UK
Tábita Hünemeier
Ramon y Cajal Researcher Human of Population Genomics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Workshop Machine Learning in Evolution
Franz Baumdicker
PI Mathematical and Computational Population Genetics, University Tübingen, Germany
Sara Mathieson
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Haverford College, USA
