LATEST NEWS

This program provides up to $1,000 USD in funding for local and regional outreach activities, including but not limited to public lectures, exhibits, student competitions, and professional development events for teachers. Proposals are due March 6, 2022. Learn more about how to apply here.

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 celebrated its 75th anniversary. As part of this celebration, SSE hosted a symposium at the 2021 Virtual Evolution meeting to commemorate this anniversary with a series of talks representing SSE’s long-standing and continuing commitment to expanding evolutionary understanding. The papers collected in this special issue will present the work of the symposium speakers, including Amanda K. Gibson, John Beatty, Martha Munoz, Brandon Ogbunu, and Noah Whiteman. Keep an eye out for this special issue, to be released later this year with an introduction by María Rebolleda-Gómez and former SSE President Ruth Shaw.

The Evolution conference is the joint annual meeting of the American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists. The meeting is one of the premiere opportunities for sharing research on evolutionary biology each year. 2022 is currently planned as a hybrid meeting, with a 2-day virtual conference (June 21-22) followed by the standard 4-day in-person meeting (June 24-28), provided it is safe to meet in person. More details will be provided soon.

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. 

The Undergraduate Diversity at Evolution (UDE) program sends undergraduate students to the annual Evolution meeting, where they will present a poster; receive mentoring from graduate students, postdocs, and faculty; and participate in a career-oriented 'Undergraduate Futures in Evolutionary Biology' panel and discussion. The program is funded by SSE and the BEACON Center for Evolution in Action. Applications are due Sunday, March 27. Learn more and apply on the website.

In 2018, SSE announced a tri-society initiative to develop a Code of Ethics for SSE, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the American Society of Naturalists. While behavior at the annual Evolution meeting falls under a Code of Conduct, the societies currently have no policies regarding conduct outside the meeting. Adopting Codes of Ethics 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. The three societies have now each drafted their own Codes of Ethics, which have been approved by the Councils of each society. Before each Code is put into place, we are seeking our members’ feedback and approval. 

We invite you to visit the Code of Ethics website, review the standards of conduct and processes for enforcement, ask any questions you may have, and give your feedback before March 7, 2022. Thank you for your participation!

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.

Starting in April, Evolution will accept two new article types: Evolution Insights and Evolution Reviews. Reviews will synthesize research fields and provide novelty through new or significantly updated research syntheses and will be limited to 4500 words. Insights will provide insights or summaries of emerging hot topics, observations, theory, controversies, and new and unresolved questions, and will be limited to 1500 words. Learn more about Evolution’s other article types here.

The deadline to submit a nomination for the 2022 Dobzhansky Prize has been extended to February 14, 2022. This award recognizes the accomplishments and future promise of an oustanding evolutionary biologist who has received their PhD within the last four years. The recipient will receive $5000 USD and will present the Dobzhansky Prize talk at the annual Evolution meeting. Learn more here.

Congratulations to the twelve recipients of the 2021 Rosemary Grant Advanced Awards, part of the Graduate Research Excellence Grants. This year’s recipients are Colby Behrens, Ying Chen, Derek Denney, Tanmay Dixit, Robert Driver, Santiago Herrera-Álvarez, Hanna Makowski, Manish Pathak, Rozenn Pineau, Rosalyn Price-Waldman, Jill Sanderson, and William Thomas.

These grants are funded in part by donations from our members to the Rosemary Grant Advanced Award funds and the George W. Gilchrist Student Support Fund. This year's George W. Gilchrist Student Support Fund recipient is Derek Denney.

The deadline for the ASN/SSE/SSB Inclusiveness, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Award has been extended to February 1, 2022. The IDEA Award will be given to a person at any career stage who has strengthened the ecology and evolutionary biology community by promoting inclusiveness and diversity in our fields.  The award can also be presented to a group. Learn more and submit your nomination here.

The Society for the Study of Evolution is pleased to announce the 2022 R. C. Lewontin Early Award competition. These grants are part of the Graduate Research Excellence Grants award program and are for students in the 1st or 2nd year of their PhD program. Awards will range from $1,500 to $2,500. Proposals will be due February 23. Learn more here.

Earlier this year, the SSE Evolution Journal Taskforce distributed a survey to members of SSE and the European Society of Evolutionary Biologists (ESEB) to collect feedback from the community on authors' perspectives on the journal Evolution and priorities when choosing where to publish. Your feedback is now being used to devise new initiatives to increase quality submissions from existing and new audiences and improve the journal reputation and author experience. Thank you to all who participated! 

Review the full data, or read the text summary here.

Evolution Letters seeks to fill three positions to begin early 2022: Communications Editor, Preprints Editor, and Associate Editor. 

1. The Communications Editor will work with our authors to help promote new research to wider audiences. The role will be particularly well suited to an early career evolutionary biologist with a keen interest in science communication.


2. The Preprints Editor help identify exciting preprints that fit the journal’s remit and scope. The role will be suited to a mid-career evolutionary biologist with a keen eye for the best research across the field of evolutionary biology and a reputation for producing high-quality research.


3. The Associate Editor should be an individual whose research expertise includes experimental evolution. The role will be suited to an early-, mid- or late-career group leader who has a reputation for carrying out cutting-edge research using any experimental evolution system.

Applications are due Friday, 17 December. Continue reading to learn more.

The SSE Diversity Committee (DC) seeks to add two new members starting in late January of 2022. The DC works to support members from all backgrounds through several main actions: by broadening representation to the SSE Executive Council, by pursuing initiatives that support historically excluded groups, and by creating an inclusive, accessible environment at the Evolution conference and in evolutionary biology in general. 

Applications are due December 20. Continue reading to learn more.

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 Evolution Joint Meeting Committee is pleased to welcome two new Assistant Chief Meeting Organizers: Brian Hollis and Alex Wong. With Chief Meeting Organizer Howard Rundle, the new organizers will help plan and run the annual Evolution meeting, including producing the scientific program and interfacing with the society councils and the professional conference organizer. Thank you Dr. Hollis and Dr. Wong for your commitment!

The Stephen Jay Gould Prize recognizes, promotes, and rewards individuals who have increased public understanding of evolutionary biology and its place in modern science. Nominations will be due January 15, 2022. Learn more and apply here.

The ASN/SSE/SSB Inclusiveness, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Award is given to a person or group at any career stage who has strengthened the ecology and evolutionary biology community by promoting inclusiveness and diversity in our fields. Nominations will be due January 15, 2022. Learn more and apply here.

The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize recognizes the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding young evolutionary biologist. Nominations will be due January 31, 2022. Learn more and apply here.

The SSE Presidents’ Award for Outstanding Dissertation Paper in Evolution recognizes an outstanding PhD dissertation paper published in an issue of the journal Evolution during a given calendar year. Nominations will be due January 31, 2022. Learn more and apply here.

As part of SSE Council’s 2020 commitment to actions to increase inclusion of and support for members of historically excluded groups, the ASN, SSB, and SSE Diversity Committees will be distributing a survey to our members to identify areas where the societies could work to be more inclusive and better serve our diverse memberships. The survey, created by the Diversity Committees and McKinley Advisors, was crucially shaped by input from interviews with a small group of tri-society community members. Your responses to this survey will inform our efforts to make our ecology and evolutionary biology community more welcoming and inclusive. Members, keep an eye out for the survey in your inbox soon!

The Evolution Highlights series showcases some of the interesting and varied papers published within the last few years in Evolution. The goal of these Evolution Highlights is to let our readers learn more about how the highlighted study came into existence and to invite the authors to share stories and tips from the perspective of a recently published author. We welcome nominations and self-nominations for this series.

Here we highlight "Quantifying the relative contributions of the X chromosome, autosomes, and mitochondrial genome to local adaptation." Evolution Highlight by Clementine Lasne.

The Evolution Highlights series showcases some of the interesting and varied papers published within the last few years in Evolution. The goal of these Evolution Highlights is to let our readers learn more about how the highlighted study came into existence and to invite the authors to share stories and tips from the perspective of a recently published author. We welcome nominations and self-nominations for this series.

Here we highlight "Virulence-driven trade offs in disease transmission: A meta-analysis." Evolution Highlight by Miguel Acevedo.