The Indian Society of Evolutionary Biologists (ISEB), an independent consortium of researchers and faculty working on evolutionary biology in India, is holding its first conference on the 24th and 25th of October, 2019, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru. The two-day meeting is themed around ‘Celebrating Ecology and Evolution in India’. It is bringing together eminent researchers and students across the country, who are actively involved in research on evolutionary biology.
The conference, a first-of-its-kind, boasts of a plenary lecture by Prof Raghavendra Gadagkar from the Indian Institute of Science, who is also the President of ISEB. It hosts a special talk by Prof LS Shashidhara from IISER Pune, who is also the President of the International Union of Biological Sciences, on fostering international collaborations. Twenty invited speakers will provide a peek into their specific areas of research in their talks. The conference is aimed at engaging and inspiring young researchers on the exciting areas of research in ecology and evolution. There are also poster sessions and awards for the same.
“India has about 50 evolutionary biologists across the country—a number we are hoping to increase,” says Prof TNC Vidya from JNCASR, who is the coordinator of the conference and also a member of the executive council of ISEB.
In the last one year since its inception, ISEB has hosted many talks and schools on evolutionary biology, some of which are open to the public.
“Evolutionary biology has a wide application in our everyday lives. From medical sciences to crop sciences and understanding animal societies, including that of humans, can take a page out of evolutionary biology,” she says.
The conference is expected to attract about a hundred enthusiastic attendees, some of who are from the public. In case you missed registering for this impressive line-up of talks, there are a few on-spot registrations open.