Hello SSB Members,

We were excited to see many of you online for the virtual portion of the 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology last week, and we are looking forward to seeing many of you for the in-person portion at the end of July. We were especially excited for the two sessions of talks by the student finalists for the Ernst Mayr Award. Even if you couldn’t watch them live, please be sure to check out the recordings online and support our student members. 

One of the highlights of being president of SSB is that every three years we have the opportunity to honor one of our members with the Presidents' Award for Lifetime Achievement. I am honored to share that we will be presenting this award to Dr. Scott Edwards of Harvard University at the in-person conference. He is richly deserving of this award for his many outstanding scientific contributions, his commitment to our scientific society, and his tireless dedication to making our field and conference more equitable and inclusive. Congratulations to Scott for this very well-earned recognition! 



I also am happy to share that we are now offering a Global Membership Assistance Program to provide free or discounted membership to students, researchers, and educators from less economically advantaged countries. We hope this will encourage systematists and biodiversity scientists from around the world to join our Society and attend our virtual and in-person conferences. Please look for this new, exciting membership category.

I look forward to seeing many of you soon in Montreal, Canada for the in-person portion of the Joint Congress!

Sincerely,

Corrie Moreau

SSB President

SSB President's Award for Lifetime Achievement Honors Dr. Scott V. Edwards

SSB is delighted to announce Dr. Scott V. Edwards as the eighth recipient of the Society’s Presidents’ Award for Lifetime Achievement!

The Presidents' Award for Lifetime Achievement is given to a person who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the field over the course of many years. The recipient is selected by the three Presidents of the Society (President, President-Elect, and Past President). The interval between presentations of this award must be at least three years.

Dr. Edwards is a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Curator of Ornithology and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, as well as the Chair of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. He previously served as President of SSB (2006), as well as an SSB Council Member (2001-2003). He has published a wide variety of influential papers in SSB’s flagship journal, Systematic Biology; helped lead Society- and field-wide efforts to improve equity and inclusion; mentored a large number of students and postdocs, many of whom have also been very active in SSB; and served the Society in innumerable other capacities.

Congratulations, and thank you, Scott!

Tri-Society

IDEA Award Honors Dr. Corey Welch of Iowa State University

SSB is thrilled to partner with the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) in announcing the 2023 winner of the Tri-Society IDEA Award, Dr. Corey Welch of Iowa State University! The IDEA Award is given to a person at any career stage who has strengthened the ecology and evolutionary biology community by promoting inclusiveness and diversity in our fields.

Dr. Welch was selected for his wide range of work to broaden participation of students and professionals from diverse backgrounds in all areas of STEM. Using the latest research on student success and his training in vertebrate ecology and evolution, he established and now directs an award-winning undergraduate training program, the STEM Scholars Program at Iowa State University. During his work with the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), where he served on the board of directors for six years, Dr. Welch launched an ongoing mentoring program at the society’s annual meeting and has served as a facilitator for the Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institutes. In addition to this work, Dr. Welch has led more than 40 seminars and presentations, mainly at biology and EEB departments, on how to improve DEI in STEM. Most recently, Dr. Welch founded the Sharon Farr Welch Northern Cheyenne Tribal Scholarship program for students from his own Northern Cheyenne community to pursue higher education.

The 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology officially got underway last week with the 2-day virtual conference. This was a resounding success, with excellent keynote, contributed, and student awards talks!

Ernst Mayr Award Symposium

On Friday afternoon (6/28), 12 students working in systematics and biodiversity competed in the Ernst Mayr Award Competition. The Ernst Mayr Award is given to the presenter of the outstanding student talk in the field of systematics. This is SSB's premier award and is judged by the quality and creativity of the research completed over the course of the student's Ph.D. program.

All twelve talks were excellent! Those registered for the Joint Congress can currently view recordings on the meeting’s Zoom Event platform, by following links from the virtual meeting page. Recordings will eventually be available to everyone on the Evolution Meeting YouTube page. Congratulations to all the finalists!

• Laymon Ball, Louisiana State University
• Ethan Briggs, University of Idaho
• Heru Handika, Louisiana State University
• Jerrica Jamison, University of Toronto, Scarborough
• Joshua Justison, Iowa State University
• Bjørn Tore Kopperud, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Jenna McCullough, University of New Mexico & Museum of Southwestern Biology
• Sarah Morris, The George Washington University
• Leroy Nuñez, American Museum of Natural History
• Karen Salazar, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia / Institut de Systématique, Evolution et Biodiversité, Muséum national d′Histoire naturelle, Paris, France
• Benjamin Teo, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Amanda Vieira da Silva, Federal University of ABC

In-Person Meeting

The 3rd Joint Congress will continue from July 26-30 with the in-person meeting at the Palais de Congres in Montréal, Canada. The in-person meeting will feature several important SSB events, including the SSB Presidential Address by Past President David Baum (Sat., July 27th, 8:00 AM), the IDEA Award Plenary Talk by Dr. Corey Welch from Iowa State University (Fri., July 26th, 7:00 PM), and the SSB Public Business Meeting (Sat., July 27th, 1:30 PM). Several awards, including the Presidents’ Award, the Ernst Mayr Award, and the Publisher’s Award, will be presented just before the SSB Presidential Address, so make sure to set your alarms for Saturday morning.

In addition to these SSB-specific events, the in-person meeting will feature a wide variety of mixers, socials, networking events, and the exciting return of Story Collider (Sun., July 28th, 7:00 PM)! You won’t want to miss these. Check out the in-person meeting overview for a full list.

Don't Miss These DEIC Events

The SSB DEIC is hosting a special symposium “Approaches to DEI initiatives in evolution and systematics for different cultural and national contexts.” In this symposium, we seek to showcase the diversity of needs and approaches used in different national and cultural scenarios, and across evolutionary biology, to increase and sustain best practices for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The SSB DEIC is hosting an event that will provide professional headshots at no cost to students or postdocs who lack these professional development resources at their institutions. The photographer will be available from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm on Monday, July 29th in the Conference Center in Room 447.

Mark your calendars, and we look forward to seeing you in Montréal!

SSB Early Systematist Awards

Congratulations to recipients of the 2023 SSB Early Systematist Award!

Early Systematist Awards are small grants from SSB to support early-career researchers at the undergraduate or (junior) graduate student level that include a 3-year student membership to SSB and $1,000 to support preliminary research and/or travel to an SSB-sponsored meeting (e.g., Evolution or an SSB Standalone).

The first cohort of Early Systematist Awardees are:

• Jonah Alderson, San Diego State University
• Kurt Bryant Bacharo, University of the Ryukyus
• Leander Bertsch, LMU München
• Leann Biancani, University of Rhode Island
• Stefano Borghi, James Cook University
• Tatiana Bush, Washington State University
• Luo Chen, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
• Morgan Cribelar, Oklahoma State University
• Minghao Du, Central South University
• Stephanie Eskew, Colorado State University
• Diego Garfias Gallegos, Duke University
• Nathaniel Green, Washington State University
• Emily Griffith, Drexel University
• Arielle Kim, Duke University
• Ezra Mendales, University of Montana
• Karina Moreno, University of Hawai'i, Manoa
• Teagan Mulford, Northern Arizona University
• Gavin Munson, Utah State University
• Tiffany Pan, University of Calgary
• Julia Soares Parreiras, Utah State University
• Lina Raubold, Richard Gilder Graduate School
• Melissa Rex, Nova Southeastern University
• Vicens Vila-Coury, Columbia University / American Museum of Natural History
• Tatjana Washington, University of Chicago
• Wenjie Zhu, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Congratulations to Newly Elected SSB Council Members!

SSB recently held elections for President-Elect, five Council Members, Treasurer, Awards Director, and Communications Director. In addition, a new Trustee was appointed by the SSB President. Congratulations to all!

President-Elect

Tracy Heath

Treasurer

Lacey Knowles

Trustee

Laura Kubatko

Council Members

Kaycee Bell

Daniel Caetano

Megan Smith

Rebecca Tarvin

Thais Vasconcelow

Awards Director

Rebecca Chong

Communications Director

April Wright

SSB Mentorship Program

The SSB Mentorship Program is back for its 2nd year! 

The SSB Mentorship Program creates mentorship pairs between junior and senior members of the systematics community. Junior members receive guidance (e.g., scientific, professional, etc.) from senior members located at different institutions, while senior members nurture growth in the next generation of systematists. The program pairs graduate students and postdocs (junior members) with more-established members of the systematics community that include faculty, curators, teachers, researchers, etc. (senior members).

The mentorship program is still in need of a few more mentors for this year! If you are a senior member of the systematics community, please consider applying right away.

New Membership Management System on SSB Website

In early 2024, SSB updated its membership management system. If you are an SSB member and haven’t logged in since then, start by going here and requesting a new password.

Once you have a password and log in, you should be able to see the status of your membership and also find a button at the bottom of the "About" tab to renew your membership in the future.

If you’re interested in joining SSB for the first time, go here to become a member today!

Tri-Society Letter in Support of Collections

In response to ongoing reductions in support for several major biological collections worldwide, SSB joined the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) in writing an open letter urging support for all biological collections and emphasizing their invaluable role in research. You can read the letter on the SSB website here.

Evolution Meeting Organizer

The Tri-Societies (SSB, SSE, and ASN) are looking for a new Assistant Meeting Officer (AMO) to help plan and run the annual Evolution meetings.

The AMO will help with organization, including interfacing with society councils and other stakeholders, producing the scientific program, and providing academic insight. The AMO’s primary responsibilities will be for the in-person meeting, although some engagement with the virtual meeting may also be requested. AMOs normally serve a 3-year term and, if interested, may transition into the lead CMO role at some point, with approval of the JMC. Helping run our meetings is an important and valuable service to our societies and our field which is largely a volunteer effort, but the AMO will be given a stipend of $5000/year in appreciation. All meeting attendance costs will also be covered, as well as any other costs associated with carrying out meeting responsibilities.

More information is available here.

Stay in Touch with SSB Social Media

The most efficient way to keep up with SSB happenings is through our website and various social media channels. If you don’t already follow us on your favorite social media platform, do it now!

Bluesky - @systbiol

Mastodon - @SystBiol@ecoevo.social

X/Twitter - @systbiol