ecology @ guelph's ecoblog

Naturalist talks at the Arboretum

FRIENDS of LUTHER MARSH

An evening of presentations by three renowned naturalists:

Bridget Stutchbury
David Lamble
Paul General

University of Guelph Arboretum Centre Auditorium

Thursday, May 21st, 2009, 6:30 pm

Come and listen to three inspiring speakers on the wildlife of Luther Marsh.

Dr. Stutchbury, is the noted author of "Silence of the Songbirds", David Lamble is a renowned local birder, and Paul General is the Six Nations First Nations Environmental Director and Eco-Center Manager.

We are extremely lucky to have these three impassioned wildlife experts in the same room. The evening is one you won't want to miss!

$30 advance / $35 at the door

Tickets and information: 519-848-6463 or 519-848-3908 or email info@saveluthermarsh.org

Ecosystems Services Conference – Call for Posters

Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought, and Environmental Justice:

The 1st Millennium Conference of the Ecological Society of America November 9-12, 2009, Athens, Georgia
 http://esa.org/millenniumconf/2009/

 

 

CALL FOR POSTERS

Deadline for Submission: Thursday, May 28, 2009

 

The Conference Committee is calling for the submission of poster abstracts that relate to water-ecosystem services, drought, or environmental justice.  Abstracts that address connections between these three themes are especially encouraged. Authors may take a research, policy, or education approach to the topic applied to any geographical region. Approximately 30 poster abstracts will be selected from this open call.

 

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The 1st ESA Millennium Conference will have about 100 invited attendees. For each accepted poster abstract, there will be one invitation to attend the Conference and present the poster. There will be no registration fee, but attendees will be responsible for their own travel and lodging. Funding is currently being sought to support the attendance of students invited to present a poster at the Conference.

 

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

To submit your poster abstract, please follow this link:

http://eco.confex.com/eco/mc09/mcpost/papers/index.cgi.

 

If you have any questions, please contact Aleta Wiley, Science Programs Assistant at the Ecological Society of America, at aleta@esa.org, or refer to the Conference website, http://esa.org/millenniumconf/2009/.

Darwin's Legacy Conference (McMaster)

Darwin's Legacy: Natural Selection as an Organising Principle in Science

 McMaster University campus from May 25 to May 29 2009.


REMEMBER TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND. _______________________________________________________________________

The Origins Institute (OI) at McMaster University is celebrating the sesquicentennial for Darwin's masterpiece, by staging a major international conference, May 25-29.

As the Associate Director for the OI and chair for the conference Scientific Organizing Committee, I am honoured and pleased to invite you to this event.

I copied below information about the planned conference. Addtional information can be accessed at

http://origins.mcmaster.ca/conferences.php

Conference registration fees include continental breakfasts, breaks (coffee, tea, water, and pastries), and lunches.

The Origins Institute will cover costs for parking or reimburse costs for local transportation.

The OI was founded in 2004 as a transdisciplinary academy to explore fundamental questions in science through 6 origins themes (space-time, elements, structure in the cosmos - stars, planets, galaxies, life, species & biodiversity, humanity).

Additional information about the OI may be accessed at

http://origins.mcmaster.ca

The OI emphasises transdisciplinary research and all talks will be delivered in a manner that will accommodate the broad scientific audience and topics that will be featured at the conference. _______________________________________________________________________

SCHEDULE The conference will comprise 9 half-day sessions and social activities. Each session will include one keynote addresses (approximately 50 minutes, plus 10 minutes for discussion), one invited speech (approximately 25 minutes, plus 5 minutes for discussion), and shorter contributed talks. Two poster sessions also will be held.

May 25, morning - Darwinian Science

May 25, afternoon - Selection (Natural, Sexual, and Kin) Mark Rausher

Social Reception (May 25, evening)

May 26, morning - Paleontology James Valentine

May 25, afternoon - Evolution & Development Brian Hall

May 26, evening - Public Lecture Steve Benner

May 27 morning - Cognition, Language, & Culture Christof Koch

May 27, afternoon - Social Outing (Niagara Falls)

May 27, evening - Winery Dinner

May 28 - Speciation & Adaptation Hopi Hoekstra

May 28, afternoon - Molecular Evolution Steven Benner

May 28, Conference Banquet (Royal Botanical Gardens)

May 29, morning - Emergent Complexity

May 29, afternoon - Origin of Life & Astrobiology David Deamer

May 29, evening - BBQ

Peter Singer Lecture

The Inaugural Guelph Lecture in Philosophy

“Ethics and Animals”
Dr. Peter Singer (Princeton)
101 Rozanski Hall
The University of Guelph
2-4 pm March 21, 2009
There is no cost to attend. All are Welcome.
Tickets are not required.

Peter Singer’s visit to Guelph will inaugurate the Guelph Lecture in Philosophy. Each year the Department of Philosophy will invite a renowned philosopher to our campus to present The Guelph Lecture in Philosophy. Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University will be the first Guelph Lecturer. Newsweek magazine has written that “The modern animal rights movement may be dated to the 1975 publication of Animal Liberation by Australian philosopher Peter Singer.” Dr. Singer’s most recent book is The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.

Ontario Ecology and Ethology Colloquium 2009

Queen’s University is hosting the annual Ontario Ecology and Ethology Colloquium, April 26th to 28th, 2009.

Grad students, undergraduates, faculty and post-docs from Ontario and beyond are gathering this spring at the Ontario Ecology and Ethology Colloquium (OEEC). This annual conference is a forum for researchers to present their work in a constructive and friendly atmosphere. Originally conceived as a venue to present research in ecology and behaviour, OEEC has since broadened to include such diverse topics as evolution, genetics, psychology, physiology, conservation and environmental science.

The registration deadline is coming up soon!

http://biology.queensu.ca/oeec09/Welcome.html

SWEEET Symposium

Symposium for Women Entering Ecology and Evolution Today (SWEEET) is a symposium intended to address issues that influence the advancement of women from postgraduate degrees into academic, government, and industry positions in Ecology and Evolution. The focus is on building the capacity for dialogue and mentoring among Canadian female scientists.

This is the second year that SWEEET is being held and we hope to build on the successes from last year. It will take place on May 14th at Dalhousie University just prior to the joint meeting of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution (CSEE) and the Genetics Society of Canada.

For more information, look here.

2009 Ontario Ecology and Ethology Colloquium

OEEC April 26th - 28th 2009 at Queen's University

Grad students, undergraduates, faculty and post-docs from Ontario and beyond are gathering this spring at the Ontario Ecology and Ethology Colloquium (OEEC). This annual conference is a forum for researchers to present their work in a constructive and friendly atmosphere. Originally conceived as a venue to present research in ecology and behaviour, OEEC has since broadened to include such diverse topics as evolution, genetics, psychology, physiology, conservation and environmental science.

For more information see http://biology.queensu.ca/oeec09/Welcome.html

2009 Yodzis colloquium in Fundamental Ecology

May 20-21 2009

Held on the campus of the University of Guelph, the theme for this year's colloquium is evolution, celebrating Darwin's 200th birthday and 150 years since the publication of Origin of Species.

Speakers this year are:

• Dr. Niles Eldredge, American Museum of Natural History, curator of the recent Darwin exhibit at the ROM.
• Dr. David Sloan Wilson, Binghamton University (SUNY), Evolutionary biologist and evolution education expert.
• Dr. Eugenie Scott, Director, National Center for Science Education USA.
• Dr. Brian Alters, McGill University, Evolution education expert.
• Dr. Richard Lenski, Michigan State University, Experimental evolution
• Dr. Belinda Chang, University of Toronto, Molecular evolution
• Dr. Ryan Gregory, University of Guelph, Genome evolution

Please see our website for more details and registration at: www.uoguelph.ca/Ecologicalcolloquia/

ASTRA Lecture: Massimo Pigliucci

The University of Guelph Arts, Science & Technology Research Alliance (ASTRA) presents:

Massimo Pigliucci

Sci-Phi: The Borderlands Between Science and Philosophy

January 29th, 7.30pm in Science Complex Atrium

How is philosophy relevant to science?

Sci-Phi, the borderland between science and philosophy, is a highly fecund area of interdisciplinary inquiry, where philosophers and scientists come to approach common problems from different yet mutually enhancing perspectives. It is high time to overcome the psychological divide between what C.P. Snow famously called “the two cultures” and renew the Enlightenment project of one unified quest for reason.

Massimo Pigliucci has a PhD in genetics, a PhD in botany and a PhD in philosophy. He received the Dobzhansky Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. He is the author of several books, including Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature and Nurture, Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism and the Nature of Science, and Tales of the Rational: Skeptical Essays about Nature and Science.

Call for abstracts - ESA meeting

Call for Contributed Oral and Poster Abstracts

94th ESA Annual Meeting
Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 2 - 7, 2009

Deadline for Submission: February 26, 2009

We invite submission of abstracts for contributed oral and poster presentations at the 2009 ESA Annual Meeting. The meeting will be held August 2-7, 2009, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Abstracts that address the meeting theme, “Ecological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society”, are especially encouraged, but submissions may address any aspect of ecology and its applications. We also welcome submissions reporting interdisciplinary work, that address communication with broad audiences, or that explore ways of teaching ecology at any level.

Please note that invited speakers for Symposia and Organized Oral Sessions should not submit their abstracts until they receive specific instructions by email in late January. These abstracts will still be due on February 26, 2009.

Contributed oral presentations are allotted 15 minutes plus 5 minutes for questions, and will be placed in thematic sessions scheduled Monday afternoon through Friday morning. By submitting an abstract, it is expected that authors will be available during any of these time slots.

 

Contributed poster presentations are placed in late afternoon poster sessions scheduled Monday through Thursday afternoon. Posters should be hung all day preceding their session, and authors are expected to present their posters during the entire 90 minute poster session.

 

For more information and to begin the submission process, please go to http://esa.org/albuquerque/call_abstracts.php.

 

If you have any questions, please contact Program Assistant Aleta Wiley (Aleta@esa.org) or Program Chair Scott Franklin (Scott.Franklin@unco.edu).