More than 1,000 biologists from around the world will converge on the ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder campus June 14-18 for the joint annual meetings of the American Society of Naturalists, the Society of Systematic Biologists and the Society for the Study of Evolution.
The conference includes celebrations of the career achievements of Professor Timothy Prout, retiring from the University of California, Davis and Edward Wilson, retiring from Harvard. Concurrent meetings will be held on a wide range of topics including behavior, developmental patterns, sexual selection, plant and animal interactions, coevolution and mutations.
Highlighting the conference will be a talk by Wilson. Wilson is known for his work on the ecology and evolution of ants, for founding the field of sociobiology and for his recent work on conservation biology. His book “On Human Nature” won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978. A social gathering in Wilson’s honor will be held following his address.
Opening events are on Saturday, June 14, at the Mountain Research Station north of Nederland featuring “Proutfest,” a celebration marking the retirement of Timothy Prout, a professor of evolution and ecology at UC-Davis. Prout is best known for his work on fruit flys and for his contributions to the field of population genetics.
Sixty biologists from New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, Brazil and the United States will convene to hear a series of talks from his students and friends.
Several symposia are scheduled on Monday, highlighted by Geerat VermeijÂ’s address as president of the American Society of Naturalists. Vermeij, a professor at the University of California, Davis, is world renowned for his work on the biogeography and evolution of mollusks.
He is blind and has written a well-received autobiography titled “Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life” that has taken him to reefs, beaches and mudflats around the world.
On Tuesday, concurrent sessions will continue including the Society for the Study of Evolution’s symposium titled “Know Thy Self: Evolution of Self-Recognition Systems.” The meeting ends Tuesday night with an address to the Society of Systematic Biologists by Jay Savage, president of the group, titled “A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go ” in Macky Auditorium at 8 p.m.
Professor Savage is a prominent herpetologist and helped found the Organization for Tropical Studies, which trains tropical biologists at field stations in Costa Rica.
Although the conference is closed to the public, members of the media are welcome to attend. The meeting headquarters will be located in the University Memorial Center, room 159.
A complete schedule of events can be found on the web site for the meeting at: .