The Swiss annual meeting of organismal biology

Biology is the major annual Swiss conference on organismal biology, covering all aspects of ecology, evolution, systematics, behavior, and conservation. The meeting represents the annual meeting of the Swiss Zoological (SZS), Botanical (SBS) and Systematics (SSS) societies who co-sponsor the event via the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT), together with support from the Swiss Bioinformatics Institute (SIB).

The conference aims to provide a platform for lively exchange between students, early-career scientists and established researchers across diverse institutions and disciplines within organismal biology.
 
To celebrate Darwin’s groundbreaking insights, this 2-day conference traditionally takes place around Darwin’s birthday and brings together approx. 300 participants from the Swiss community and beyond. It features 4 plenary talks by internationally renowned invited speakers; dozens of contributed talks by early-career scientists; a lively poster session; and, importantly, on Thursday evening the traditional ‘Darwin’s birthday party’, a conference banquet with an after-dinner talk given by a renowned invited speaker and followed by a party.

The day before the meeting (5 February) is reserved for a satellite workshop of the Swiss Bioinformatics Institute (SIB) on 'Analyzing Microbiomes' (organized by Laurent Falquet, Fribourg) and a public outreach event (details to follow).
 
We are proud to announce our keynote speakers:
·  Claudia Bank (Instituto Gulbenkian, Portugal) (evolutionary dynamics)
·  Iain Couzin (Max Planck Institute/Univ. of Konstanz, Germany) (collective behavior)
·  Alexandra-Maria Klein (University of Freiburg, Germany) (ecosystems, landscape ecology)
·  Andrea Waeschenbach (Natural History Museum, London) (molecular phylogenetics)

 
We are also very excited to haveJohn Pannell (University of Lausanne, CH) as our Darwin speaker.
 
A flyer is attached below, and please pass on this e-mail to all colleagues and students who might be interested in attending.
 
Important dates
01 October 2019: registration and abstract submission open
22 November 2019: abstract submission closes
20 December 2019: presenter notification
06 January 2020: registration closes
13 January 2020: final programme
 
Website
http://www.biology20.ch/