6 reasons why you should be excited about PanAm EvoDevo Meeting in Calgary August 2017

Pan-American Society for 

Evolutionary Developmental Biology 

August 19-23, 2017 University of Calgary

 

It's Canada 150th! All National parks are free, Calgary is will be celebrating,

 so join the Celebrations!

http://www.evodevopanam.org/2nd-biennial-meeting.html

REASON 1: The most exciting Evo Devo meeting I have ever attended with over 300 participants last year UC Berkeley! 

The meeting was organized by Nipam Patel, Chris Lowe, Karen Sears, and myself and it brought in the "who's who" of evodevo. Many of my colleagues said this was the most exciting evodevo meeting they have attended! It mostly ran smooth with the exception that the poster boards blew over half way through!i

REASON 2: The talks are really exciting and broad: from animals and plants to unicellular organisms, from Canada  to the USA to Latin America ... We are all Evo Devo!!

This cover by Nipam sums it all up! At these meetings we all have the chance to sit and listen to each other, different subdisciplines, and organisms weaving together the grand story of evolution and development.

A beautiful cover photo any Edward Zattara for the JEZB:MDE

 Issue for EvoDevo in Latin America

The participants weaved together their own interests, we have a lot of work to do together to integrate all the sub disciplines of EvoDevo

REASON 3: Celebrate the contributions of the Pioneers and talented Early-career investigators of Evodevo. Last year we celebrated the contributions of Rudy Raff for the Pioneers Award and this year we celebrate those of Sean Carroll, who gave a keynote at last year's evodevo. 

The amazing Chesea Specht presents Natalia Pabon-Mora with Early-Career Award

The renowned Greg Wray made the trip to PanAm from Singapore to present Rudy Raff with the Society's first Pioneer's Award

Neelima Sinha (left) and Sean Caroll (right) pose for a picture after their keynote addresses. Sean Carroll is this year's Pioneers Award winner. 

REASON 4: The workshops are informative and discuss hot topics in our field.

We had workshops by leaders of Evodevo on Education, Women in Science, CRISPR, Evodevo in Latin America, and even more!

REASON 5: It's fun and stimulating to hang out with my cool EvoDevo colleagues and friends and discussing the depths of Evodevo!

There are two receptions and many opportunities to chat and catch up with your colleagues and friends!  

Reason 6: I get to finally visit the marvelous and enigmatic Burgess Shale, something I have wanted to see !!!

Ever since the publication of Gould's This Wonderful Life I have wanted to visit the Burgess Shale! My dream is about to come true ...

Please register and join us this summer in Calgary! http://www.evodevopanam.org/2nd-biennial-meeting.html

When former PhD students visit your lab

This week my former PhD student Rajendhran Rajakumar was visiting the lab to finish some experiments. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Martin Cohn's lab at the University of Florida chasing ancestral genetic potentials in sharks and will soon begin his second Postdoc at Harvard University in Nobert Perimon's lab where he will master the art of the fly before coming back to his beloved ants. 

Rajee Rajakumar in Action at the Entomology Conference 2016

Rajee came back to finish some critical experiments for his next big paper. His enthusiasm and positive attitude renergized the lab, and we ate lots of sharwerma and fish and chips, so come back anytime Rajee!

Here is Rajee, master manipulating the ants:

Lets hope those experiments work! I love when my former students come back and I get the chance to see how they have matured and become independent scientists, it makes me feel very very proud, after all their success is my success ... We need more young and aspiring minds in Science. As for Rajee, I have no doubt he will reach for the stars and make it big, and soon I will be visiting his lab to learn new techniques and he will pay for my shawarma and fish and chips. 

Welcome back Rajee!

Ehab Abouheif

04 May 2017