Bay Area is now home to a large number of exceptionally strong labs working in the area of population genetics and molecular evolution. Despite the fact that we are physically close to each other, the level of interaction among labs in different Universities is not as great as it could be. It is particularly bad for students.

We are organizing a quarterly meeting that would rotate among the Universities in the area. We were thinking that we could do smth very informal one Saturday per quarter. Say, have a number (4-5) of 40 minute talks (20 min talk + 20 min discussion) in the morning with a good coverage of labs around the area. Finish early in the PM and have time to go out for beer and/or a hike or some such.

I hope that we can do this!

Dmitri Petrov