The Second World Summit on Evolution (WSE) will convene 24-27 August 2009 in the Galapagos Islands. With their historical significance in the development of the evolutionary theory, the Galapagos Islands offer an unparalleled venue to celebrate Darwin's bicentennial. The summit will bring together experts and students from widely different areas of evolutionary biology that rarely have the chance to meet. The focus will be on recent research and new advances in our understanding of evolution and the diversity of life. One session will focus in directly on containing the spread of creationism and intelligent design while improving the public's understanding of evolution throughout the Americas and elsewhere. Unlike the First WSE in 2005, there will be a mix of invited speakers and submitted talks.
The summit will also include the first meeting of the Sociedad Iberoamericana de Biologia Evolutiva (SIBE). SIBE will be the first truly international forum that can lead to the establishment of academic and intellectual bonds between the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking specialists in evolutionary biology.
The Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Ecuador, will again host the WSE and the first meeting of the SIBE on its Galapagos campus. This campus is located on the Island of San Cristobal and was established in 2002. This Summit is planned as part of a broader program designed to teach evolution to students and the general public that will take place throughout the year in mainland Ecuador.
Structure of conference
This four-day conference will consist of 40-minute talks by invited speakers, as well 15-minute submitted talks. There will also be poster sessions. Professors, post-docs, and students from throughout the world will be able to submit abstracts for talks or posters. This conference will include 250 participants; thirty speakers and chairs will be invited.
On the third day, conference participants will be able to attend guided tours of the island. Both terrestrial and marine environments will be visited.
Program
August 22
- 14:00–16:00 REGISTRATION
- 16:00–16:30 Carlos Montufar, President of Universidad San Francisco de Quito: Opening remarks
- 16:30–17:30 Carlos Valle, Ecuador
Science and conservation in the Galapagos Islands - 19:00 WELCOME COCKTAIL
August 23
Session I:
Origins of life and prokaryotic evolution
Chairperson:
Ricardo Guerrero, Spain
- 9:00–09:45 Jeffrey Bada, USA
Darwin's legacy and the origin of life - 09:45–10:30 Ada Yonath, Israel
The evolving ribosome - 10:30–11:15 Andres Moya, Spain
Symbiosis: learning how to live together - 11:15–11:35 BREAK
- 11:35–12:20 Edward J Feil, England
A synthesis of ecological and genomic islands in bacterial evolution - 12:20–13:05 Roberto Kolter, USA
The ecology and evolution of bacterial Interspecies Interactions - 13:05–15:00 LUNCH
Session II:
Eukaryotic diversity
Chairperson:
Micah Dunthorn, USA
- 15:00–15:45 Shuhai Xiao, USA
Written in stone: The fossil record of early eukaryotes - 15:45–16:30 Cameron Currie, USA
Evolutionary innovation through symbiosis: exploring ancient agriculture in insects - 16:50–17:35 Billie J. Swalla, USA.
- Chordate origins and evolution
- 17:35–18:35 Three submitted talks
August 24
Session I:
Evolution of Plants and Animals
Chairperson:
Carlos Valle, Ecuador
- 09:00–9:45 Lucia Lohmann, Brazil
Untangling diversity patterns of Neotropical lianas: an integrative approach - 09:45–10:30 Ignacio Escapa, Argentina
Patagonian flora through time: evolution and isolation. - 10:30–10:50 BREAK
- 10:50–11:35 Sandra Baldauf, Sweden
The protistan origins of animalsand fungi - 11:35–12:20 Leticia Avilés, Canada
The evolution of inbred social systems: causes and consequences - 12:20–14:30 LUNCH
Session II:
Confronting Creationism and Intelligent Desing
Chairperson:
Juli Pereto, Spain
- 14:30–15:10 Two submitted talks
- 15:10–15:55 The spread of creationism and intelligent design in the Americas, Antonio Lazcano, Mexico
- 15:55–16:55 General discussion
- 16:55–18:30 Poster session
August 25
Morning and Afternoon: Field trip
- 20:00–21:30 First meeting of the Sociedad, Iberoamericana de Biología Evolutiva
August 26
Session I:
Evolution of the Parasitic Lifestyle and Emerging Diseases
Chairperson:
Gabriel Trueba, Ecuador
- 09:00–9:45 Evgeni Sokurenko, USA: Source/Sink dynamics of short–term evolution of virulence.
- 09:45–10:30 Paul Sharp, Scotland: The origins and evolution of AIDS viruses
- 10:30–10:50 BREAK
- 10:50–12:50 Four submitted talks; 20 minutes each.13:00–15:00 LUNCH
Session II:
Evolution and Conservation
Chairperson:
Stella de la Torre, Ecuador
- 15:00–15:45 Andrew A. Cunningham, England: The emergence of disease threats to biodiversity through the breaching of evolutionary boundaries
- 15:45–16:15 Two submitted talks
- 16:15–16:45 BREAK
Session III:
Evolution and human affairs
Chairperson:
Diego Quiroga, Ecuador
- 16:45–17:30 Margaret Schoeninger,USA: The dietary origin(s) of the human lineage
- 17:30–18:15 Jaume Bertranpetit, Spain: Natural selection on humans in the XXI Century: new views on Darwin’s basic ideas
- 19:30–23:00 Cocktail Party
Invited Speakers and Chairpersons
Leticia Avilés
Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Canada
Jeffrey Bada
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, USA
Sandra Baldauf
Department of Evolution, Genomics and Systematics, Systematic Biology Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Jaume Bertranpetit
Unitat de Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Andrew A. Cunningham
Institute of Zoology, London UK
Cameron Currie
Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, USA
Emma Darwin
Goldsmiths' College, University of London, UK
Micah Dunthorn
Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Daniel Dykhuizen
Department of Ecology & Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA
Ignacio Escapa
Museo Paleontólogico Egidio Feruglio Fontana, Argentina
Edward J Feil
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, UK
Ricardo Guerrero
Department of Microbiology, University of Barcelona, Spain
Shuhai Xiao
Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
Roberto Kolter
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics · Harvard Medical School, USA
Antonio Lazcano
Science Faculty of National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
Lucia Lohmann
Department of Botany, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Roderick I. Mackie
Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois-Urbana, USA
Carlos Montufar
President of Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Andres Moya
Head Cavanilles Institute for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology,
University of Valencia, Spain
Juli Pereto
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Valencia, Spain
Telmo Pievani
University of Milan II Bicocca, Italy
Diego Quiroga
Universidad San Franisco de Quito, Ecuador
José Sarukhan
Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
Nori Satoh
Department of Zoology, Kyoto University, Japan
Margaret Schoeninger
Antropology, University of California San Diego, USA
Sahotra Sarkar
Section of Integrative Biology, Department of Philosophy;
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Paul Sharp
School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Gabriel Trueba
Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador
Stella de la Torre
Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador
Carlos Valle
Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador
Ada Yonath
Structural Biology Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Costs and Fees
Costs and Fees
Registration Fee: $350 (Students $200)
1. INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
USFQ has obtained from American Airlines special discount fares for international travel. The contact at American Airlines - Quito is: Mari Castillo (Mari.Castillo@aa.com) Please contact her directly.
You may choose another airline if it is of your convenience.
2. QUITO STAY/ GALAPAGOS FLIGHT/ GALAPAGOS STAY
Condor Travel Agency in Quito will handle the local travel and lodging. Please contact Mariana Lanusse at mariana-lanusse@condortravel.com . Condor travel can also assist you on pre and post-tours.
BASIC PROGRAM QUITO & THE GALAPAGOS 2009
3. MEALS
Local restaurants will provide meals. USFQ will coordinate and work closely with these establishments in order to assure quality service. Our university has used local restaurants for similar events in the past without any inconvenience.
4. USFQ SUPPORT
USFQ counts with an experienced summit staff that is ready to assist you on all your needs both in Quito as well as in the Galapagos.
Should you have any questions, please contact Patricia Sierra at evolution2009@usfq.edu.ec.
Academic Committee
- Antonio Lazcano, Universidad Autónoma de México
- Micah Dunthorn, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
- Roderick Mackie, University of Illinois at Urbana
- Gabriel Trueba, Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Instructions for Abstracts and Presentations
Guidelines
Authors should indicate whether the abstract is for a poster or an oral presentation and identify the section of the meeting you want to place your presentation.
Sections:
- Origins of life and bacterial evolution
- Eukaryotic diversity
- Evolution of plants and animals
- Confronting creationism and intelligent design
- Evolution of the parasitic lifestyle and emerging diseases
- Evolution and conservation
- Evolution and human affairs
How to prepare the abstract:
- The abstracts must be written in English. For participants whose native language is not English we recommend to have somebody review the document before submission.
- The deadline for abstract submission is June 10, 2009
- Authors submitting abstracts must register otherwise abstract will be eliminated.
- Use default single spacing and 12 point, Times New Roman font. Do not use colors.
- The main text of the abstract must be left and right justified.
- Do not include any references in the abstract.
- Use correct taxonomic nomenclature (pay attention to the use of capital letters and italics)
- Abstracts must fit onto a single A4 page and contain no more than 1900 characters.
- Figures or tables must fit within the space allowed and must be black and white.
- Abstracts must describe a body or research finished. Statements such as “………… will be discussed” are not acceptable.
- Set margins to 4 cm on all sides.
- Authors’ names should consist of the full first name, any initials, and the family name, and should be centered. The presenting author should be indicated with an asterisk (*). Leave a blank line after the list of authors.
- For the title use font Times New Roman bold
- Names and affiliations should be written as the example below:
Julio Rodriguez1 , Sandra Barragan1, and George Finch2
1Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2University of California, Berkeley.
Abstracts must be sent by e-mail to: vbarragan@usfq.edu.ec.
The subject line must include the sentence “WSE abstract”. You should receive a confirmation in the next 4 days.
Questions: gtrueba@usfq.edu.ec
Specifications for Poster Presentations
- Posters must be 1.20 x 1.20 m
- The posters should have the following sections : Abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, conclusions, and brief bibliography
- The meeting secretariat will advise you where to place your poster.
- Abstract title, author names, and the institution, in large letters centered at the top of the poster.
- Place your address, phone and fax numbers and e-mail in the upper right-hand corner.
- At least one of the authors must be at the assigned space during the designated time to discuss the poster.
- The poster should be readable from a distance of 1-3 meters. This means that all lettering should be at least 8 mm high.
- Consider symmetry when laying out your poster, try to balance elements like text boxes, images, etc, so they flow and look pleasing.
- Abstract, graphs and figures should be readable from a distance of 2-3 meters. Pay attention to size and quality.
Specifications for Oral Presentations
1) Each participant can present only one oral presentation which must last 12 minutes with 3 minutes for questions.
2) Oral presentations should be submitted to gtrueba@usfq.edu.ec.
3) Oral presentations must be in English and there won’t be translators.
4) Oral presentations should contain: background, objectives, methods, results, conclusions/implications. Objective should be clearly stated. Avoid unnecessary detail in methods unless the methodology is the central topic of your talk. Primarily discuss the results and conclusions. Conclusions should relate back to objectives.
5) Presentations must be in Power Point format. File format: Microsoft Power Point presentation formatted for Windows (all versions), Adobe PDF Files
6) Please create and save your file name in accordance with the rule below. 7)
Ref. number/Last Name.ppt, example: OE1 Smith.ppt
7) If you are not able to present your talk, it is essential that you contact the secretariat meeting immediately to notify them of any change of presenter or withdrawal. You will not be permitted to present from your own laptop
8) The meeting rooms are equipped with Windows-PCs (Office 2005 version), no Macintosh machines.
9) Audio-visual equipment available includes a microphone and one LCD projector. Slide Projector will not provided.
10) Laser pointers will be available
11) Make yourself known to the chairpersons. Plan to meet with the Session Chairman near the speakers’ platform 15 minutes before the beginning of the session. Please provide the session chair with the completed speaker information card you will be given at registration. The name of your Session Chairperson is given in Program-Abstract book. All speakers are encouraged to sit in the front row of the auditorium
