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The SSE Nominating Committee invites nominations for five Council positions beginning January 2025: President Elect, North American Vice President, and three Councilors. Nominations are accepted throughout the year, but only nominations submitted by April 15 will be considered for the 2025 ballot. We welcome self nominations. Continue reading for descriptions of each position.

Would you like to serve in a leadership role at SSE? Know someone else who would? Nominate yourself or someone else for SSE Council. Officer nominations submitted by April 1 will receive full consideration by the nominating committee for that year's election cycle. 

SSE seeks diversity of people and ideas on council and editorial boards. We strongly encourage nominations and self-nominations of individuals who represent the full diversity of the evolutionary biology community, including (but not limited to) all aspects of identity and background, types of institution, geographic location or scientific approach. 

SSE seeks participation by individuals committed to increasing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in science. We strongly encourage nominations, including self-nominations, of individuals who have a demonstrated commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in science.

Learn more about the roles and responsibilities of each position in the SSE Handbook. 

Submit your nomination here. Deadline: April 1.

On February 7, 2022, SSE, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and American Society of Naturalists invited comments from our members on proposed Codes of Ethics for each society. Adopting such codes will allow the societies to establish explicit standards of excellence and a transparent process for upholding these standards, and in so doing, foster societies that are welcoming for everyone. Please see below for a letter of support for adopting the SSE Code of Ethics from the SSE Diversity Committee and the SSE Graduate Student Advisory Council. 

We invite you to review the standards and processes and indicate your support and/or concerns before March 7, 2022.

31 January 2022

The development of the joint SSE/SSB/ASN Code of Ethics is a major step forward in our efforts towards improving equity and inclusion in the field of evolutionary biology and within our societies. The Diversity Committee and Graduate Student Advisory Council of the SSE strongly support its development and implementation.

While many professional societies, our own included, have survived with an inconsistently enforced, unwritten code of ethics, the formalization of an ethical code sets the standard for behaviors that are and are not acceptable in professional and social contexts, whether in person, in writing, or in a virtual setting. Having a transparent and standardized code of ethics clarifies the boundaries of appropriate behavior to all society members, including society leaders and those involved with the societies, thereby removing the temptation of allowing unethical behavior to continue simply because it reflects historical norms. A code of ethics ensures concrete accountability (with potential sanctions listed in the code) when members harm others or the Society through violations of these ethical codes. It provides a venue for reporting unethical behavior, which is a key form of support for people who are common targets of ethical violations, including people from historically excluded groups and early career researchers. Importantly, a code of ethics also provides a framework from which society leadership can fairly assess or address ethical violations, with clear descriptions of the evaluation process and explicit mechanisms for appealing outcomes.

Although it could be argued by some as regrettable that these boundaries need to be laid out in a concrete fashion, a robust and enforceable code of ethics, as laid out and implemented here, benefits the safety and wellbeing of all members of our society and all individuals involved with the society. We welcome its development. We encourage all society members, and indeed all individuals associated with the society, to read the Code of Ethics and provide any suggestions or feedback that might clarify and improve it. Following the incorporation of input from members of the society, we encourage you to support adopting the Code of Ethics and commit to putting it into practice in your own lives and work.

Signed,

The Diversity Committee, Society for the Study of Evolution
The Graduate Student Advisory Council, Society for the Study of Evolution

Earlier this month, the SSE Council met virtually for the annual mid-year meeting, which complements the annual Council meeting which occurs in conjunction with the Evolution meeting. Some highlights from the meeting:

• The Code of Ethics committee proposed a Code of Ethics for SSE, which we invite you to review. ASN and SSB have also proposed Codes of Ethics.


• An ad hoc committee proposed an updated Constitution and Bylaws that better reflect the organizational structure of the Society and more closely adhere to common standards for formatting and content of such documents (read more here).


• The SSE Education and Outreach Committee announced plans for this year’s Undergraduate Diversity at Evolution program. 


• The Diversity Committee reported on their many in-progress initiatives, including the results of the tri-society climate survey conducted last year, efforts to increase equity and inclusion in awarding, publishing, and Council processes, and ongoing work with Diversity Consultant Dr. Kim Mulligan.


• Diversity Consultant Dr. Kim Mulligan led a visioning session to establish Council’s goals for SSE and develop a vision and mission statement for the Society. Stay tuned for more details on and results from these efforts. 

Last year, SSE Council formed an ad hoc committee to review the Society’s Constitution and Bylaws, which were found to be inconsistent with standard structure and content of governance documents for non-profit organizations. The committee has recommended changes to improve the clarity and organization of these documents. These changes have already been approved by Council. Changes to the Bylaws can be enacted following a vote from Council, but all changes to the SSE Constitution must also be approved by the membership. Keep an eye out for a vote via email in the coming weeks. 

Congratulations to our new Council members: President-Elect Kelly Zamudio, Non-North American Vice President Hanna Kokko, Treasurer Courtney Murren, Councilors Regina Baucom, and Daniel Bolnick, and Angélica Cibrián-Jaramillo, and GSAC Chair-Elect Robert Driver.

To nominate yourself or someone else for Council, please complete this form. All nominations received by March 1 will be considered for this year’s slate.

We are pleased to announce the results of this year’s election for SSE Council. Please join me in welcoming Kelly Zamudio (President-Elect), Courtney Murren (Treasurer), Hanna Kokko (Non-North American Vice President), and Councilors Angélica Cibrián-Jaramillo, Daniel Bolnick, and Regina Baucom. These positions will start January 1, 2022. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s election!

The Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and the Society of Systematic Biologists stand in solidarity with the many Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander communities and vehemently condemn these acts of domestic terror. To our Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander members: we support and respect you. We will continue the work of transforming our Societies into safe and inclusive places for you, and for all members of our communities.

The murders of Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun, and Paul Andre Michels in the Atlanta area are symptoms of violent anti-Asian racism, which has only increased since the onset of the pandemic in the United States last year. These events are widespread. Across the country, Asian elders are being attacked in the streets with increasing frequency. Asian and Asian-American communities have been living with heightened anxiety and fear every day. Asian women in particular have been the targets of these violent and racist attacks. We are outraged seeing perpetrators of these hate crimes once again excused at the expense of their victims, enabling continuous xenophobic and racist violence in the U.S. 

We call on our largely white membership to capitalize on their privilege to support their colleagues. We must deny comfort and complacency in the midst of oppression by engaging in self-reflection and active anti-racism. Be vocal and openly expose and reject racism, prejudice, and exclusion in all forms both inside and outside academic spaces. Please reach out to those you mentor and the students in your classes. Tell them you condemn these acts and share resources where they can get support. Work with your trainees to make your shared spaces safe and welcoming for people of Asian descent. Learn the history of U.S. anti-Asian policy, military occupation, and colonialism at the root of these issues. There are endless resources, but here is one place to start: https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/.

This violence is not external to our community and our scholarship. Some members of our community have been directly harmed, while others, also within our community, have caused some of this harm. There are numerous ways to practice effective allyship, and we include several useful resources below. If you want to learn more, you may be interested in following these Twitter accounts: ;@stopaapihate, ;@aapiwomenlead. Professional societies have a substantial role in making shared spaces welcoming and safe for all. 

If you have been affected by violence and/or racist actions, please feel free to share your concerns and suggestions with our leadership. We need your input, feedback, and criticism to better support all of our scientists, especially those who have been actively excluded for so long. You can reach the society committees focusing on this work at these email addresses: diversity@evolutionsociety.org, asndiversity@gmail.com, diversitydirector@systematicbiologists.org 

Some Resources:

Asian Americans Advancing Justice
OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates National Center
Anti-Asian Violence Resources
Free Bystander Intervention Training
How to Be an Active Bystander When You See Casual Racism
Ten simple rules for building an antiracist lab
Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List
Anti-Asian racism and COVID-19
Anti-Racism Resources for the AAPI Community
Stop AAPI Hate website for reporting hate incidents

Tri-society Diversity Committees
SSB DEI Committee and Standing Against Racism Statement
ASN Diversity Committee and Statement on Anti-Black Racism
SSE Diversity Committee and Statement Against Racial Injustice

Correction: An earlier version of this statement incorrectly stated the names of Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, and Yong Ae Yue. We sincerely apologize for the error.

This year marks 75 years since SSE was founded. To celebrate, we are publishing a special series of Perspectives and Commentaries in Evolution. In January and February we present articles to celebrate SSE’s recent history and impacts, and to provide an important assessment of diversity within our field. Over subsequent months, we are publishing articles to highlight key scientists in the field, as well as to celebrate Evolution papers that have had major impacts in the fields of adaptation, coevolution, speciation and macroevolution.  Learn more about the history of SSE here and read the special articles as they come out here.

Congratulations to our new leaders: President-Elect Laura Galloway, Secretary Sarah Schaack, North American Vice President Leonie Moyle, Councilors Liz Alter and Maria Orive, and GSAC Chair-Elect Henry Arenas-Castro. The proposed amendment to expand Council passed; the SSE Council election will include three seats for Councilors starting with the 2021 election. Thank you to everyone who voted!

We welcome your comments on a proposed amendment to the SSE Constitution. You will also be able to vote whether to approve this amendment during the upcoming SSE Council Election, beginning early November. The proposed amendment would increase the number of Councilors elected each year from two to three. Learn more and make comments on this page.

The Society for the Study of Evolution seeks nominations (including self-nominations) for positions on the Governing Council of the Society as well as the editorial board of the journal, Evolution. Nominations will be accepted via Google Form on a rolling basis; please consult the form for information on each position, including term lengths and start dates. Neither nominees nor nominators are required to be SSE members, but must be willing to become members in order to serve on council or the editorial board.   

Officer nominations submitted by March 1 will receive full consideration by the nominating committee for that year's election cycle; all terms begin January 1. Nominations for the Editorial Board submitted by July 1 will receive full consideration for that year's nomination cycle. 

SSE seeks a diversity of people and ideas on council and editorial boards. We strongly encourage nominations and self-nominations of individuals who represent the full diversity of the evolutionary biology community, including (but not limited to) all aspects of identity and background, types of institution, geographic location, or scientific approach.

SSE seeks participation by individuals committed to increasing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in science. We strongly encourage nominations and self-nominations of individuals who have a demonstrated commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in science.

Dear SSE Community,

I am writing to you from my home just 10 km from the site in Minneapolis where police killed George Floyd, the latest in a long series of atrocities against Black Americans. This and other tragic events are set against a backdrop of anxiety, fear, and grief owing to the global Covid-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Black people, Indigenous people, Latinx people, and others in already marginalized groups. The Society for the Study of Evolution mourns these losses and condemns racism, harassment, and discrimination in any form.

To our members in the Black community, we extend our heartfelt sympathy and abiding support at this especially difficult time. To this community, and to all biologists of color: we hear you, and we see you. We will listen to and amplify your voices. We are striving to learn how to do better, and we will continue to work toward inclusion and equity in all of our activities. 

SSE’s mission is to promote the study of evolutionary biology. The scientific core of evolutionary biology is valuing and appreciating biological diversity. Likewise, we welcome, support, and celebrate the diversity of our members. Like many fields of science, the field of evolutionary biology has lacked diversity, with Black people and people of African descent being particularly underrepresented (Graves 2019). Centuries of inequity and racism, suffered severely by Black communities, have resulted in barriers to participation in STEM that we must all work to break down. We promote equity, inclusion, accessibility, and diversity at all levels, and we encourage participation by individuals of all identities. 

We also acknowledge that concepts central to evolutionary biology, especially heredity and natural selection, have historically been misused to justify egregious manifestations of racism, and that even today, co-options of evolutionary biology are being used to support racist ideologies. As evolutionary biologists, we must confront this disinformation.

We encourage the SSE community to recognize, amplify, and celebrate the contributions that Black scientists have made, and continue to make, to the field of biology despite myriad barriers. This week, we have an excellent opportunity to do this. A group of Black biologists, collected under ;@BlackAFInStem on Twitter, started the Black Birders Week initiative, which is highlighting Black birders and naturalists. We wholeheartedly support these efforts and encourage you to follow the conversations and contributors this week on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at #BlackBirdersWeek and #BlackInNature, and to be on the lookout for similar future initiatives.

In the wake of last week’s painful events, I encourage all of us to examine acutely how privilege manifests in our daily lives and our work, to take steps to mitigate the resulting harm, to examine our own tendencies to stereotype, to call out racist or exclusionary statements, and to consider ways to act and provide support. 

In solidarity,



Ruth Shaw
President, Society for the Study of Evolution

Dear SSE Community,

First, I hope you are able to stay safe and well.

Our stated mission as a scientific society is to promote the study of evolutionary biology. In the coming months, we will continue to strive toward that goal as we are able, but it will likely look different from  what we’re used to. We have started a Resources Page with links to online teaching resources, seminar series, and tips for conducting research from home. (Submit a resource here.) We are also in the process of considering options for virtual events this summer, with the goal of supporting our early career researchers as well as possible. 

Lastly, I want to acknowledge that though we are experiencing a global phenomenon, we all face unique challenges and experiences. Please remember to be kind to one another -- including yourself! We especially encourage those who, in the coming years, will be evaluating individuals for new faculty hires or promotions, or for postdoc positions, or as prospective grad students to avoid weighting heavily the amount or quality of work that appears to have been accomplished during this difficult time. Now more than ever is a time of extenuating circumstances, when matters far out of our control are making drastic, unforeseen changes in our lives and work.

Thanks for reading, and for being part of this community. 


Ruth Shaw
President, Society for the Study of Evolution

Dear SSE Colleagues,

As the COVID-19 pandemic has been unfolding across the globe, we evolutionary biologists, along with the rest of the world's population, find ourselves embedded in this staggering biological phenomenon that is causing severe disruption of our personal and professional lives. I write to convey my keen hope that you are all keeping well and helping those around you by complying with CDC recommendations for changing our behavior. Beyond this, I hope you yourselves can maintain good spirits and support those in your circles. I am sorely disappointed that we won't be meeting in June as friends and fellow students of evolution, but I will continue to appreciate our mutually supportive community of evolutionists.

Ruth Shaw
President, Society for the Study of Evolution

The Society for the Study of Evolution and the American Society of Naturalists are deeply saddened to convey that George W. Gilchrist, a long-time member of our community, recently passed away. 

George earned his BS at Arizona State University working on butterflies with Ron Rutowski, his MS at Brown on damselflies with Jon Waage, and his PhD at the University of Washington with Joel Kingsolver working on the evolution of thermal sensitivity (1993). He then completed a postdoc with Ray Huey at the University of Washington on experimental evolution of thermal sensitivity in Drosophila. George extended his work on the evolutionary genetics of Drosophila while in faculty positions at Clarkson University and the College of William and Mary before becoming a long-time Program Director (Division of Environmental Biology) at the National Science Foundation. For 10 years, George was the liaison between the Education and Outreach Committees of ASN and SSE. His impact on our science and young scientists has been exceptional.

George’s family has asked that a fund be created in his honor to support additional graduate student research and travel to the annual Evolution meetings.

Donations in George’s honor can be made through SSE here or through ASN here.

The SSE Diversity Committee (DC) seeks to add two new members starting in 2020. The DC works to create a professional society that is supportive of members from all backgrounds through several main actions: by broadening representation to the SSE Executive Council, by pursuing initiatives that support underrepresented groups, and by creating an inclusive, accessible environment at the Evolution conference. Continue reading to learn more.

 When someone asks me if I’ve “seen the Amazon,” I think it reveals that people don’t know what the Amazon forest really is. I was born in Manaus, a city in the middle of the Amazon; the Amazon Forest is my home. I studied biology, but my contact with the forest began when I was a child. Like my parents, I was raised to like and respect nature.

Continue reading Érica M. S. Souza’s story on the SSE Community Blog.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued an invitation to researchers to register as potential reviewers for the 2020 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The NSF writes, “Serving as a GRFP Reviewer is an excellent opportunity to apply your research and career expertise to help identify future science and engineering leaders. It is also a great opportunity to become familiar with the NSF Merit Review process.” Learn more and register here.

From our Blog Editor, Sasha Mushegian: 

This fall, we’d like to hear your stories about learning. How did you learn a skill or concept that you needed to do the science you wanted to do? What winding paths has your learning taken, and what approaches and resources helped you? How do you learn completely new things among all the other responsibilities and needs you have as a scientist and human? If you are an educator: is there a particular curriculum or teaching approach that allowed your students to master a skill in a way you’re proud of? And what kinds of collaborative skill-sharing processes have you taken part in as a scientist in a community of learners?

Send your stories of everyday learning, as well as everyday creativity and everyday failure, to blog@evolutionsociety.org. Read more on the blog. 

This month on the blog, hear from Evolution meeting organizer Mitch Cruzan on “How to throw a five-day party for 1,800 of your closest friends”, and from outgoing Evolution Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Noor for a behind-the-scenes look at the journal publication process.

This month on the blog, we hear from blog editor Sasha Mushegian about learning from scientific failures big and small (“Learning From Failure”), and from Érica M. S. Souza (pictured here) about overcoming myriad challenges while pursuing a career in biology in Brazil (“Building a Scientific Career in Brazil”). Contact Sasha to submit your story, perspective, or project to the blog.

The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) seeks nominations of faculty members for four open positions on SSE Council to begin January 1, 2020. These positions include:

1. President-Elect (1 position, 3-year term)
2. Non-North American Vice-President (1 position, 2-year term)
3. Council Member (2 positions, 3-year terms)

To learn more about the responsibilities for these offices please see the SSE Handbook for Council and Committee Members.

If you are interested in nominating yourself or another individual for Council, please complete the nomination form by April 1, 2019, which is available here:  https://goo.gl/forms/P6H9Rj4H0r05GG1y1

On the form you will be asked to provide: i) the nominee’s name, ii) contact information, and iii) a brief rationale for the nomination.

SSE values diversity on Council, and we particularly encourage nominations of individuals that represent the full diversity of the evolutionary biology community, including (but not limited to) all aspects of identity and background, types of institution, or scientific approach. All candidates for election to Council must be SSE members at the time they are listed on the ballot. Nominations will be reviewed by the Nominating Committee (Marc Johnson, Anne Charmantier, and Johanna Schmitt) and the current SSE Council.

Questions can be addressed to the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Marc Johnson (marc.johnson@utoronto.ca).

We're excited to announce the launch of the new SSE Community Blog! Check out the welcome message from our new Blog Editor Fellow, Dr. Sasha Mushegian, and stay tuned for new posts starting this Friday, March 8!