Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation – Early Career Scientists Symposium, March 14
The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is pleased to announce the program for this year’s Early Career Scientist Symposium. This year’s theme is Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation—an exciting symposium about innovative and unconventional uses of biological collections across scientific disciplines. The symposium will take place Saturday, March 14, 2020, at the Biological Sciences Building on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
When biologists think of natural history collections, most tend to think of taxonomy and systematics, yet many are unaware of the uses of biological collections beyond those traditional fields. These studies span the breadth of the tree of life and address broad subjects from comparative genomics to bioengineering and climate change to historical pathogen dynamics, among many, many more. We envision this symposium as a way to showcase the often-unrealized opportunities and non-traditional avenues of research that our collections make possible to the entire scientific community, and emphasize some of the interdisciplinary ways our collections are being or could be used.
The program includes two keynote talks by senior speakers and seven additional talks by early-career speakers. Our keynote speakers are Rob Guralnick and Pamela Soltis from the Florida Museum of Natural History. Additional details on our speakers and their topics is found here.
Following the symposium, a reception and collection tours will be held at the Research Museums Center (just five miles south of the UofM Central Campus). Free parking is available, but transportation will be provided to and from the Research Museums Center. Please indicate if you will need transportation during the registration process.
