About 80 registered participants and several drop-in guests enjoyed two days with presentations and discussions about various topics in biosystematics including the role of natural history collections, the importance of biosystematics for fisheries, and other topics in evolutionary research and phylogenetics. The Norwegian and Swedish Taxonomy Initiatives were also presented, see program. The talks were partly given by invited guests from Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom and partly by ForBio PhD members.
The research school is now going into its second year and more than half of the 61 current student members could participate in its first annual meeting. They presented their projects and research results and the meeting ended in a general discussion focusing mainly on the role of the research school for PhD education and the current standing of biosystematics in the scientific world.
The first prize for the best student oral presentation was awarded to Lovisa Gustafsson (Natural History Museum, University of Oslo) for her talk “Cryptic Speciation in Arctic Plants” and the poster prize went to Stina Weststrand (Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University) for the poster “Biogeography lacks some spores. Spikemosses don’t. – Phylogeny, historical biogeography and phylogeography of Selaginella”.
Thanks to all participants and to the many helping hands!
See also:
http://www.artsdatabanken.no/ArticleList.aspx?m=6&amid=8854