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POSTPONED until fall 2020: EEB Early Career Scientists Symposium | Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation

Due to travel restrictions and concerns for speakers and registrants due to COVID-19, we have decided it's best to postpone ECSS 2020.
Saturday, March 14, 2020
8:00 AM-5:00 PM
1060 Biological Sciences Building Map
Watch for updates later this year.

The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is pleased to present Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation, an exciting symposium about innovative and unconventional uses of biological collections across scientific disciplines. The symposium events will take place from the 13-15 March 2020, 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 that span comparative genomics to bioengineering and climate change to historical pathogen dynamics, among many, many more. As stewards of one of the largest university-based biological collections in the world, we are in an extraordinary position to leverage our holdings of biological material from the last century or 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 in which our collections are being or could be used. We hope to foster a broader understanding and expanded use of an incomparable resource that the University of Michigan has cultivated for the past two hundred years.

The symposium will feature both established and novel uses of natural history collections across a wide range of taxonomic groups, systems, and time. Our goal is to create a program with contributions from all corners of ecology and evolutionary biology. The program will include two keynote talks by senior speakers and additional talks by early-career speakers.

Thank you!

ECSS 2020 Committee
Jenna Crowe-Riddell
Sonal Gupta
HernĂ¡n Lopez-Fernandez, chair
Benjamin Nicholas
Teresa Pegan
Brad Ruhfel
Cody Thompson
Taylor West

Administrative Support
Event coordination: Linda Garcia & Molly Hunter
Event promotion: Gail Kuhnlein
Graphic design/art: John Megahan
Photography: Dale Austin

Image credits:
Painted meadow grasshopper, western rattlesnake, burrowing owl: Eric LoPresti. Moon snail, plant, rabbit skull: John Megahan. Mushrooms: Tim James. Background cabinet: Linda Garcia. Design: John Megahan.
Building: Biological Sciences Building
Website:
Event Type: Conference / Symposium
Tags: AEM Featured, Basic Science, biodiversity, Biology, Biosciences, Bsbsigns, early career scientists, Earth Day At 50, Ecology And Evolutionary Biology, Graduate School, Museum, Museum - Herbarium, Museum - Zoology, Natural Sciences, Networking, Paleontology, Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Research, Research Museums Center, science
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Department of Anthropology, Museum Paleontology, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, Program in Biology, Research Museums Center