Seminar on Darwin and Religion by Dr. Kenneth R. Miller

On April 4, 2008 at 7:00 pm CT (GMT - April 5, 2008 at
12:00 am), Dr. Kenneth R. Miller, a professor of
biology at Brown University will give a talk entitled
God, Darwin, and Design: Lessons from the Dover Monkey
Trial. Miller was a lead witness in the Pennsylvania "intelligent design" case that began in
September 2005, and which has been front-page news since it started.

The public is invited to view the Live
Webcast of the lecture, April 4, 2008 at 7:00 pm CT
(GMT - April 5, 2008 at 12:00 am) at the following link:

http://www.esi.utexas.edu/outreach/ols/lectures/Miller

What is the lecture about? It has been 80 years since the Scopes Monkey Trial,
but the debate between science and religion has never been as heated as it is now. Recent efforts to introduce "intelligent design" into science classes will likely lead to a major Supreme Court ruling on the issue. Kenneth R. Miller, a professor of biology at Brown University, is a preeminent evolutionary
scientist~and the author of the most widely used high school biology textbook in America. He is perfectly suited to address this controversial topic on many fronts.

Call for Symposia for 2009 Annual Meeting

The 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution will be held from June 13-17, 2009 in Moscow, Idaho and hosted by the University of Idaho. The Council of the Society invites proposals for the two Society-sponsored symposia to be held in conjunction with the meeting. Symposium proposals should include: (1) a synopsis of the symposium theme (about one page); (2) a tentative list of speakers, including institutional affiliations, and topics; (3) a rationale for the symposium explaining why this topic and this group of speakers are particularly appropriate for a Society-sponsored symposium; and (4) a budget stating approximate travel (only) costs.

In evaluating symposium proposals, the Council will favor those proposals whose topics concern newly emerging fields, fields ripe for syntheses, and fields different from those that have been included in recent Society symposia. The Council particularly encourages proposals that include women, younger investigators and others traditionally underrepresented in Society symposia.

The Council will select two proposals for half-day symposia at its meeting in June 2008. All applicants will be notified of the Council's decision in July. The Society provides partial travel support for organizers and participants in sponsored symposia. Details are available on request. To be assured of full consideration, proposals must be received at the following address by midnight Eastern Standard Time on May 27, 2008:

Dr. Charles B. Fenster, Executive Vice President
The Society for the Study of Evolution
Department of Biology
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland, 20742 USA
e-mail: CFenster@umd.edu
Proposals can be sent as paper copies by mail or preferably as e-mail attachments in Word or RTF format (under subject heading: SSE Symposia Proposal).

An open letter to the Texas Education Agency regarding science education and the termination of Chris Comer

2008 SSE INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AWARDS FOR YOUNG SCHOLARS

The Society for the Study of Evolution announces the establishment of travel awards intended to foster communication between evolutionary biologists from different countries, with particular emphasis on young scholars at an early stage of their career. 
SSE will sponsor two types of travel awards for young scientists:
1. Travel awards to non-USA/Canada young scientists living outside the USA to support attendance at the annual SSE meeting;
2. Travel awards for young USA/Canada or non-USA/Canada scientists living in the USA or Canada to attend non-SSE evolution meetings outside the country where they study or reside.

Description of the awards:
1. Support of up to $700 toward travel and living expenses (15 awards total).
2. Registration fees (the award will not cover late registration fees).
3. Membership in SSE including an electronic subscription to Evolution for 1 year.

Application guidelines:
1. Applications can be presented by young (<35 years old) scientists at various stages of their professional career.  Applicants from North America, Europe, Australia or New Zealand should be SSE members.
2. Applicants may apply several times, but if successful, they are not eligible for a second award for a period of 5 years.
3. Applicants cannot apply for other SSE sponsored travel awards in the same year, but they can seek support from other sources.
4. The applicant should submit a CV and a one page cover letter explaining:

1.  Why the chosen meeting is important for the development of their career.

b. How they are going to find additional funds to support their expenses.

1. A support letter from their advisor or mentor. 

5. Proposals should be submitted to the chair of the SSE International Committee (Dr   Gisella Caccone at adalgisa.caccone@yale.edu) by April 15th 2008.
6.Winners will be notified in early May 2008.

Decision process:
     1. Proposals will be evaluated by the chair of the International Committee (Adalgisa Caccone),
  the non-North American VP (Stuart West), and a council member chosen by the chair of the International Committee (Axel Meyer).
2. Awards will be presented to the winners at the relevant society's annual meeting.

The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize                                          

The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding young evolutionary biologist.   The prize was established in memory of Professor Dobzhansky by his friends and colleagues, and reflects his lifelong commitment to fostering the research careers of young scientists.

The winner of the 2006 Dobzhansky Award is Dr. Franziska Michor of Harvard University.   Dr. Michor began her graduate work at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton and received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 2005; her undergraduate work was at Trieste and Vienna. She has an astounding--quite embarrasing to the rest of us--record, with 36 publications since 2002, including first-authored papers in Nature and in many other prestigious journals.

Dr. Franziska Michor 2007 Prize Winner

She has already presented dozens of invited talks. Franziska's Ph.D. was on the evolutionary dynamics of cancer, bridging experimental and theoretical biology as well as medical and evolutionary research.   Her research takes a sophisticated mathematical approach to understanding the evolutionary dynamics of cancer cells and the genetics of tumor supression. Michor's work has both major theoretical and practical implications. The awards committee was particularly impressed with Michor's application of evolutionary reasoning and approaches to a somewhat unconventional subject, the biology of cancer. Her bold and innovative thinking adds breadth, depth, integration, and excitement to evolutionary biology as well as to fundamental medical research.

Past Dobzhansky Prize winners:

1981 Douglas R. Cavener
1982 Elizabeth Anne Zimmer
1983 Anthony J. Zera
1984 Robb F. Leary
1985 Joshua J. Schwartz
1986
1987 Ary A. Hoffman
1988 Steven A. Frank
1989 Bernard J. Crespi
1990 Erik Greene
1991 Jonathan Losos
1992 Barry Sinervo
1993 H. Allen Orr
1994 David Haig
1995 David Begun
1996 Rufus A. Johnstone
1997 Massimo Pigliucci
1998 Christian Peter Klingenberg
1999 Jason B. Wolf
2000 Thomas Lenormand
2001 Alexander Badyaev
2002 Howard Rundle
2003 Daven Presgraves
2004 Aneil Agrawal
2005 Daniel Bolnick
2006 Russel Bonduriansky

The R.A. Fisher Prize                                                                                 

Two years ago, the SSE initiated The R.A. Fisher Prize to recognize the most significant paper published in Evolution in the previous year, based on a recent PhD dissertation. 

In doing this, we pay tribute to both one of the most distinguished evolutionists of the 20 th century and to the most promising young evolutionary biologists.  

Sir Ronald Fisher deserves this recognition for developing, with JBS Haldane and Sewell Wright, theoretical population genetics and establishing its central position within evolutionary biology.   Fisher's interests ranged widely, but placed particular emphasis on the dynamics of mutation and selection and how these contributed to adaptation.

Dr. Guillaume Martin has been selected as this year's Fisher Prize winner for extending Fisher's tradition in evolutionary population genetics.   The Prize recognizes his paper:

Martin, G. and T. Lenormand. 2007. A general multivariate extension of Fisher's geometrical model and the distribution of mutation fitness effects across species. Evolution 60: 893-907.

Dr. Guillaume Martin 2007 Prize Winner

This is one of two papers that Martin published with his PhD advisor (and former Dobzhansky Prize winner) Thomas Lenormand in Evolution in 2006.   The paper is exceptional in several respects.   It extends Fisher's original 'geometric' model (later extended by Allen Orr, another Dobzhansky Prize winner) which seeks to understand the probability that a new mutation will either decrease or increase fitness as a function of how large an effect it has and how close a population is to an adaptive peak.   In general, we expect beneficial mutations to be less frequent in complex organisms - reflecting a 'cost to complexity.'   However, Martin and Lenormand show that interactions among loci improve the situation, helping to account for the fact that empirical distributions of mutational effects tend to be more similar than might be expected, from E. coli to fruitflies.   This is important, not only because it improves the chances that animals like us won't always be mutating out of existence, but also because the distribution of mutational effects has an important role in many areas of evolutionary biology.

Past Fisher Prize winners:

2006 Maurine Neiman