Daphne Fairbairn

 SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION

 September 8, 2015

Dear SSE Colleagues:

Those of us who were able to attend our annual Tri-Society meeting in Brazil enjoyed a beautiful venue, great hospitality and an excellent scholarly meeting.  We also had many opportunities to meet and share experiences with our colleagues in the Sociedade Brasileira de Genética.  As we had hoped, new collaborations were planned and links were forged for greater exchanges between evolutionary biologists in North and South America. 
 
Organizing this meeting presented many new challenges for all involved on both continents, and we were delighted to see it all come together so well.  Without doubt, the greatest burden fell on the shoulders ofProfessor Dr. Reinaldo Brito of the Department of Genetics and Evolution, Federal University of São Carlos.  To Reinaldo must also go the lion’s share of the credit for the success of both the social and scholarly aspects of the meeting.  Thank you Reinaldo and thanks also to all of your team from everyone in the SSE!   This was an epic job and a landmark meeting. 
 
If you could not attend the meeting in Brazil, you can still get a taste of what the meeting was like through links on the SSE home page.  Thanks to many student volunteers, videosof 150 of the talks are now online and can be accessed through the SSE web page.  For those of you who may be interested in the history and mission of the Society and its flagship journal, slides from the 2015 SSE Presidential address, On the Shoulders of Giants. Seven Decades of the SSE and Evolution, are also posted.
 
Mark your calendars now and plan to join us for EVOLUTION 2016: June 17-21, 2016 in Austin, Texas.  Information about this meeting, as well and past and future meetings has now been consolidated on our new Tri-Society Meeting web page. 


CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2015 AWARD WINNERS:
 
The Stephen Jay Gould Prize is awarded annually by the SSE to recognize individuals whose sustained and exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance in biology, education, and everyday life in the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould. This year's award winner is Professor Francisco J Ayala, University of CaliforniaIrvine and the title of his talk was "Copernicus and Darwin: Two Revolutions."  The video of his talk will soon be available on the Society web page.
 
The R. A. Fisher Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution for an outstanding Ph.D. dissertation paper published in the journalEvolution during a given calendar year. This year’s Fisher Prize is awarded to Dr. Alison E. Wright, for her paper: Alison E. Wright, Peter W. Harrison, Stephen H. Montgomery, Marie A. Pointer and Judith E. Mank. 2014. Independent stratum formation on the avian sex chromosomes reveals inter-chromosomal gene conversion and predominance of purifying selection on the W chromosome.Evolution. 68(11):3281–3295.
 
The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by SSE to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding young evolutionary biologist.  The winner of the 2015 award is Dr. Katie Wagner.  Dr. Wagner received her PhD from Cornell in 2011, and is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Swiss Federal institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, where she is collaborating with Dr. Ole Seehausen; she is also a current Instructor at the University of Bern, Switzerland. She will begin as an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming in the Fall of 2015. The committee was impressed by the breadth of her work, which has illuminated the HOW and WHY of adaptive radiation and given us a greater understanding of evolutionary processes that generate diversity.
 
The W.D. Hamilton Award for Outstanding Student Presentation has been awarded to two students who presented outstanding talks at the annual meeting.  The co-award winners were Maude Baldwin, Harvard University "The evolution of sweet taste perception in hummingbirds"  and Sarah Fitzpatrick, Colorado State University "Gene flow from an adaptively divergent source causes genetic rescue, not outbreeding depression, in two wild populations of Trinidadian guppies."  Congratulations to both of them!
 

SOCIETY NEWS AND UPDATES
  • Recently, the SSE formed a Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC) to provide a liaison between the governing SSE Council and SSE members who are presently students or postdoctoral fellows. The GSAC distributes bulletins to our student and postdoctoral members and also solicits feedback and organizes events such as the student-mentor mixer at our annual meeting. Cathy Rushworth (postdoc, UC Berkeley) and Karl Grieshop (PhD student, Uppsala University) are continuing on the GSAC this year, and we welcome new GSAC members Melissa Kemp (postdoc, Harvard University), Megan Kobiela (PhD student, University of Minnesota), and Aide Macias Munoz (PhD student, UC Irvine).  For more information about GSAC, including how you might become involved, contact this year's GSAC representative to Council, Cathy Rushworth (crushworth@berkeley.edu) or the SSE Secretary, Cynthia Weinig (cweinig@uwyo.edu).
     
  • Nominations for the Fisher Prize for 2016 (for papers published in Evolution in 2015) are open until January 31, 2016.  Authors of eligible manuscripts may initiate a nomination upon acceptance of their manuscripts for publication. Nominations must include the final version of the manuscript, dissertation completion date, and a supporting letter from the Ph.D. supervisor or other individual familiar with the work.  For more information see www.evolutionsociety.org under the “Awards” tab.
  • Applications for Rosemary Grant Student Research Awards open on January 1, 2016 and must be submitted by April 1, 2016.  Information is available atwww.evolutionsociety.org under the “Awards” tab.
  • The SSW International Committee provides funds to support international travel and to support international collaborations among evolution-oriented scientific Societies.  If you are interested in applying, further information can be found on the SSE web page (www.evolutionsociety.org) under the Awards tab.
 
AUGUST ISSUE OF EVOLUTION
Have you seen the latest issue of Evolution?  Browse the current issue and all past issues using your Society log in at: www.evolutionsociety.org
 
SSE Members can access Evolution from wherever you like from your iPad!  The Evolution app has been recently updated.  You no longer need a special access code from the Society to access this app.  Just use your Society log in! This is an exciting new development and we hope it will make for a more portable and friendly online version of the journal to stay current.  Download the FREE Evolution app from iTunes today. 

Thank you for supporting the SSE.
 
With best regards,
Daphne Fairbairn, President
Society for the Study of Evolution
 
SSE Business Office
4475 Castleman Avenue  |  St. Louis Missouri, 63110-3201
314-577-9566
www.evolutionsociety.org

March 23

Dear SSE Colleagues:

Registration is open for EVOLUTION 2015 in Brazil!  The meeting will be held at the Casa Grande Hotel Resort and Spa, a five-star seafront resort in Guarujá, Brazil. There are several other smaller hotels and B&Bs within walking distance of the meeting venue.  Get your passports and VISAs ready and make your travel arrangements for June 26-30, 2015 .  The early bird registration and presentation submission deadline is April 15.  Check out the EVOLUTION 2015 meeting site and plan to join us in Brazil this summer!


SSE Awards Accepting Nominations/Submissions
The 90 lucky winners of the Student Travel Awards for the Brazil meeting were chosen and have been notified.  You can view the winners as well as those on a stand-by list on the SSE web site. 

Applications for SSE International Travel Stipends are due on March 31.  Note that these are given by the SSE International Committee for attendance at the Brazil meeting or at the ESEB meeting in Lausanne in August.  They are independent of the SSE Student Travel Stipend for Evolution 2015 and are open to SSE members at various stages of their scientific careers, including, students, postdoctoral fellows and lecturers.  Students who have received an SSE Travel Stipend in the past five years are not eligible.  Additional restrictions apply, so check the description of the awards and consider applying.

The Rosemary Grant Graduate Student Research Award competition provides between $1500 - $2500 support to students.   These awards are to assist students in the early stages of their Ph.D (first two years) programs by enabling them to collect preliminary data (to pursue additional sources of support) or to enhance the scope of their research beyond current funding limits (e.g. by visiting additional field sites, or working at other labs). Students will need to demonstrate how the proposed work is outside any related funding for the project already held by the student or advisor. To be considered for this year's award, application materials must be received electronically by APRIL 1, 2015.

Thank you for your continued work and support of our mission.

Best wishes,
Daphne Fairbairn, President
Society for the Study of Evolution









SSE Business Office
PO Box 299  |  St. Louis Missouri, 63166
314-577-9566
www.evolutionsociety.org

 

 

January 23, 2015

Dear SSE Colleagues:

Welcome to another exciting year as part of this community.

Congratulations and thanks to our newly elected Council members!
President-elect Kim Hughes (Florida State University)
Secretary Cynthia Weinig (University of Wyoming)
Councilor Andrea Case (Kent State University)
Councilor Kristi Montooth (University of Nebraska)

Additionally, special thanks to Maria Servedio (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), who will serve as a new Handling Editor for Evolution.  You can always find out current list of officers, council and committee members HERE.

 

The 2015 SSE Annual Meeting
Get your passports and VISAs readyfor the next SSE annual meeting which will take place June 26-30, 2015 at theCasa Grande Resort in Guarujá, Brazil.  We anticipate that registration and abstract submission will open in early February.  Some information is already being posted at theEVOLUTION 2015 meeting site. More information about meeting registration and abstract submission will be coming to your inbox very soon!

SSE Awards Accepting Nominations/Submissions
There are a number of deadlines upcoming for SSE Awards.
Fisher Prize - January 31
Dobzhansky Prize - February 15
Rosemary Grant Research Award - April 1

Travel Stipends for Students Going to Brazil
Consider applying for or encouraging one of your students to apply for the Hamilton Award this year.  The W.D. Hamilton Award for Outstanding Student Presentation will be given to a student who has presented an outstanding talk at the annual meeting. Finalists will present their papers during a day-long symposium of Hamilton award candidate talks. This year, finalists will receive a registration waiver and a $500 travel stipend from the SSE.   Apply by  February 20th to be considered.  Learn more and find the link to apply HERE.

In addition to the Hamilton Award, SSE anticipates making approximately 90 Student Travel awards that will include a $500 stipend and free registration to facilitate student attendance at the 2015 annual meetings in Guaruja, Brazil. Awards will be made on a lottery basis from eligible applications completed by the deadline. Eligibility - open to graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in a degree-granting program at the time of registration, students must be presenting original work at the Evolution 2015 meeting and must be a current member of SSE.  A short application form must be filled out on the SSE web site.  You must log in as a member to view the application form.  Deadline is February 12.

Thank you for your continued work and support of our mission.

 

Best wishes,
Daphne Fairbairn, President
Society for the Study of Evolution









SSE Business Office
PO Box 299  |  St. Louis Missouri, 63166
314-577-9566
www.evolutionsociety.org


Back to top