Call for Applications: Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics 2016, a NIMBioS Tutorial

[Catherine Crawley]

The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) is now accepting applications for its Tutorial, "Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics 2016," to be held August 8-12, 2016, at NIMBioS.

Objectives: This tutorial will review the basics of theory in the field of evolutionary quantitative genetics and its connections to evolution observed at various time scales. Quantitative genetics deals with the inheritance of measurements of traits that are affected by many genes. Quantitative genetic theory for natural populations was developed considerably in the period from 1970 to 1990 and up to the present, and it has been applied to a wide range of phenomena including the evolution of differences between the sexes, sexual preferences, life history traits, plasticity of traits, as well as the evolution of body size and other morphological measurements. Textbooks have not kept pace with these developments, and currently few universities offer courses in this subject aimed at evolutionary biologists. There is a need for evolutionary biologists to understand this field because of the ability to collect large amounts of data by computer, the development of statistical methods for changes of traits on evolutionary trees and for changes in a single species through time, and the realization that quantitative characters will not soon be fully explained by genomics. This tutorial aims to fill this need by reviewing basic aspects of theory and illustrating how that theory can be tested with data, both from single species and with multiple-species phylogenies. Participants will learn to use R, an open-source statistical programming language, to build and test evolutionary models. The intended participants for this tutorial are graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty members in evolutionary biology.

The content of this tutorial will be similar to the tutorial held at NIMBioS in 2015. For more information about that tutorial, visit http://www.nimbios.org/tutorials/TT_eqg2015

For more information about the 2016 tutorial and a link to the online application form, go to http://www.nimbios.org/tutorials/TT_eqg2016

Location: NIMBioS at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Co-Organizers: Stevan J. Arnold, Integrative Biology, Oregon State Univ. and Joe Felsenstein, Genome Sciences, Univ. of Washington, Seattle

Instructors: Stevan J. Arnold, Integrative Biology, Oregon State Univ.; Patrick Carter, Evolutionary Physiology, Washington State Univ., Pullman; Joe Felsenstein, Genome Sciences, Univ. of Washington, Seattle; Adam Jones, Biology, Texas A&M Univ.; Emilia Martins, Biology, Indiana Univ., Bloomington; Brian O'Meara, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Univ. of Tennessee; and Josef Uyeda, Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, Univ. of Idaho, Moscow. Others TBA.

Co-Sponsor: The American Society of Naturalists

There are no fees associated with this tutorial. Tutorial participation in the tutorial is by application only. Individuals with a strong interest in the topic, including post-docs and graduate students, are encouraged to apply, and successful applicants will be notified within two weeks of the application deadline.

Food and Lodging: Breakfast and lunch will be provided at NIMBioS each day of the tutorial, as well as coffee and mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. NIMBioS is not covering dinner, travel, or lodging expenses for participants. A block of rooms at a group rate will be reserved at the Four Points by Sheraton Knoxville Cumberland House Hotel. More information will be available here soon about room rates and how participants can make reservations.

Application deadline: May 1, 2016

The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) (http://www.nimbios.org) brings together researchers from around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to investigate solutions to basic and applied problems in the life sciences. NIMBioS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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Catherine Crawley, Ph.D.
Communications Manager
National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)
University of Tennessee
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Knoxville, TN 37996
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