Graduate Attendance

Support for twenty-four graduate students to attend the World Summit on Evolution came from a U.S. National Science Foundation proposal (DEB-0509443, PI-Thomas H. Kunz, Boston University) with contributions from the Population and Evolutionary Processes cluster and the Ecological Biology cluster.

OVERALL STRUCTURE OF THE GRADUATE PROGRAM

Graduate students were an integral part of the World Summit on Evolution. Their inclusion added to the already diverse assembly that had been invited. Student participation was envisioned to increase the views and opinions expressed throughout the conference and to be an investment in the future for developing evolutionary this science. Through their interactions with each other and with the professional scientists during the discussion and debate periods, the student poster session, and between session talks the graduate students gained a better understanding of their field, met new people and made valuable contacts with scientists from throughout the world, and hopefully generate ideas for their future careers.

SELECTION OF STUDENTS

A fair, competitive process was employed to select twenty-four graduate students for whom the experience would be meaningful and related to their current and future research. They were selected in two ways to assure cultural, philosophical and academic diversity. First, each speaker submitted a list of up to three students in their respective field. Only one of them was their own current or former student. The were notified electronically and asked to submit a CV, a review of their current and possible future research interests, and a statement of how they could contribute to the intellectual diversity of the conference. A committee choose one applicant from each of the submitted lists. Second, six Ecuadorian students, either currently at an Ecuadorian university or abroad, were selected. Ecuadorian professors and teachers were notified electronically and asked to encourage their current and former students to submit an application. Like the other students, the Ecuadorians submitted a CV, a review of their research interests, and a statement of how they could contribute to the intellectual diversity of the conference. The same committee selected six of the applicants.