User:Roberthskraus/Wageningen Evolution and Ecology Seminars (WEES)

Wageningen Evolution and Ecology Seminars is a scientific seminar series monthly held at Wageningen University and Research Centre in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Its abbreviation is WEES. It covers evolutionary and ecological aspects of the field of Life Sciences by inviting internationally recognised scientists. WEES also has a group in Facebook.

History

Arjan de Visser and Bart Nieuwenhuis from the Laboratory of Genetics at Wageningen University developed the idea to establish a multidisciplinary forum for Evolution and Ecology related topics. Wageningen University was lacking such regular events where internationally renown scientists present their work to a broad audience in this field. After receiving approval of the idea by some Wageningen graduate schools in 2009, Bart Nieuwenhuis assembled an organising comittee to start the planning. The first WEES was held on October 22nd, 2009, by Tal Dagan from Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. The first WEES year was concluded by the seminar by Toby Kiers on June 17th, 2010, from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The seminar series was rated as a success by the funding bodies and was awarded new funding for continuation in the years 2010/2011.

Scope and aim

As stated on their website "WEES is an initiative from PhD students and postdocs at Wageningen University to organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. We aim to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions." This is achieved by involving many different research groups with young scientists performing the work, instead of the established professors.

Set-Up and scheduling

WEES is taking place as a monthly event, with a summer break in July and August. Every third thursday a leading scientist in her/his field in invited to give a master class, followed by a public talk on her/his topic. Usually, the master class is held after lunch time and lasts roughly 90 minutes. After a break, usually at 16.00h, the invited speaker gives his lecture to a public audience.

Master class

WEES master classes are held in a small circle of a maximum of 20 attendants. Interested PhD students and BSc/MSc students can register with the responsible member of the organising commitee on a first-come, first-serve basis. The attendants are given the opportunity to discuss scientific topics with high a rated scientists in a save and open atmoshpere. Usually, the invited speaker suggests some primary scientific litarature for prior reading, but otherwise no prior knowledge of the subject is expected. Student can earn credit points by attending master classes.

Talk

In the afternoon, the invited speaker gives a talk to a broad audience consisting usually of 40-120 students and scietists. The audience is a diverse mix of interested students, established scientists, and professors from various disciplines across the Life Sciences. Often, the audience includes listeners also from places outside Wageningen.

Organising commitee (OC)

The organisation of WEES is carried out by a democratic committee derived from multiple research groups. Organisers are young scientists (PhD student and postdocs), acting independantly from their associated research groups and professors. The head of the OC is responsible for cimmunicating with the funding graduate schools, and for arranging financial matters.

current members

• Bart Nieuwenhuis (head of OC)
• Rudy Jonker
• Mark van Passel
• Robert Kraus
• Ralf Kurvers
• Bart Nieuwenhuis
• Erik Poelman
• Detmer Sipkema
• Robin van Velzen
• Ansa Wasim

past members

• Ingrid van de Leemput (2009)

Funding

Funding is procided by four of the graduate schools of Wageningen University (see external links for more info).

• C.T. de Wit Graduate School for Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PE&RC)
• Graduate School 'Experimental Plant Sciences' (EPS)
• Graduate School VLAG
• Graduate School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE)

Past speakers

Since the first WEES seminar took place in 2009, several internationally renown scientists have given their contribution to WEES. It follows a list of past WEES seminar with their titles:

2009

• October 2009 - Tal Dagan Modular networks and cumulative impact of lateral gene transfer in prokaryote genome evolution.
• November 2009 - Santiago Elena Mechanisms of genetic robustness in RNA viruses.
• December 2009 - Paul Brakefield Butterfly evolution and exploring morphospace.

2010

• January 2010 - Kees van Oers (can't link, 'wrong person(s) get linked) Animal personality: why we should take behavioural contistancy into account.
• February 2010 - John Wiens (can't link, 'wrong person(s) get linked) Evolutionary and ecological origins of global biodiversity patterns.
• March 2010 - Michiel Vos (can't link, 'wrong person(s) get linked) Bacteria in the wild: genotypes, populations and species.
• April 2010 - Mini symposium: Richard Palmer (can't link, 'wrong person(s) get linked) and Menno Schilthuizen Evolution of animal asymmetry.
• May 2010 - Markus Pfenninger Model selection in phylogeography and phylogeny: concepts and worked examples.
• June 2010 - E. Toby Kiers Evolution of cooperation in rhizosphere mutualisms.

External links

• the home of WEES
• graduate school PERC
• graduate school EPS
• graduate school VLAG
• graduate school SENSE