Dear SMBE members,

We invite you to submit an abstract for the 2021 annual conference of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBEv2021) at http://smbe2021.org/.

SMBE 2021 is taking place online 4-8 July (3-7 July in the United States).

The deadline for abstract submission is Monday 3 May 2021, 23:59 (GMT). 

Note: Due to constraints imposed on SMBE because of the virtual format, we will require all accepted speakers (oral and poster) to submit their video files and posters to their symposium organisers before 28th May at the latest to be included in the conference.

SMBE 2021 will run across three geographical hubs. We hope in this way to make the conference as accessible as possible across our global community. All presentations will be pre-recorded and discussion rooms will be available for all participants to interact live online with speakers. There will also be designated poster space and live interactive poster sessions.

Registration for the conference is free for members of the society and will open 23 April. There are also several conference associated awards available for members – applications can be made during abstract submission.  SMBE membership is for 3 years and costs $10 for students and $30 for others. Membership can be applied for HERE. Please contact us via email (contact details below) if you would like to become a member but feel that this membership fee is prohibitive for you. 

Awards include: 

1. The SMBE Graduate Student Excellence Award honors the best presentation at the Graduate Student Excellence symposium, which provides a forum for young investigators to showcase their exemplary research at the annual meeting. Eligibility: Current graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who received their primary doctoral-level degree no earlier than one year prior to the start of the annual meeting of the society (minus any career disruption or delay). A candidate for the award must become a member of the Society at least a month before the first day of the annual meeting. Approximately eight winners will be selected every year to cover the broad spectrum of research covered by SMBE. You must also email your Curriculum Vitae to smbe@allenpress.com. ***The deadline for applications for this award is 30 April.***

2. The Undergraduate Mentorship Award provides support, advice and networking opportunities for undergraduate students (including Masters students under a 3+2 system) as they navigate their first international conference. Applicants for this award must be presenting their own work as a poster or talk at the conference. Applicants must email a short explanation (250 words) of why you want to attend this meeting, including a mention of whether you fall into a group traditionally underrepresented at SMBE (e.g.

Continue Reading →

Dear SMBE members,

I am writing to you today on behalf of the SMBE Council to apprise you of some changes we are making to the names and criteria for awards and honors conferred by our Society. Specifically, we wish to refresh the awards and honors in ways that are more descriptive of the achievements and more focused on the awardee. This is part of our ongoing efforts and commitment to make our Society more equitable and welcoming to diverse members of our community worldwide. The immediate changes we are making are:

1. We are expanding the criteria for our faculty excellence awards from a more traditional one-dimensional definition of scientific excellence to incorporate other important axes of scientific leadership and excellence, including mentoring and service.
2. We are renaming the awards to better reflect our focus on the awardees themselves, whom we will celebrate and recognize with plenary talks and conferred awards at our annual meetings.
3. Among our most prestigious awards are those that we confer to our best graduate students, whom we highlight at a symposium at our annual meetings. In the past, we have traditionally selected eight finalists and chosen one winner. Each year, this decision is made difficult because we are comparing often vastly different sub-disciplines of molecular evolution. From this year on, we will now name all eight selected students (and early postdocs) as recipients of this award and celebrate all their remarkable achievements at our annual meetings.

We owe an enormous debt to the giants in our field who laid the foundation for our discipline and enabled our society to thrive practically and intellectually.  We remain an international organization that facilitates association and communication among molecular evolutionists with the ultimate goal of pushing forward the field of molecular evolution. Today’s adjustments ensure our society stays true to the original vision of SMBE, while also being unafraid to change.

As always, SMBE Council members remain responsive to your comments and suggestions.

Sincerely yours,
Harmit Malik
President, SMBE

Continue Reading →

Continue Reading →

We're delighted to announce that the Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution is now accepting proposals for symposium topics for the 2021 Annual Meeting.  SMBE 2021 is taking place virtually 4-8 July (3-7 July in the Unites States). The deadline for symposia applications is 2 April 2021 (23:59 GMT).

Please visit HERE to access information and the submission portal.

Proposals will be reviewed by the committee with around 20-30 topics selected for inclusion within the scientific programme.

Format for SMBE 2021:  SMBE 2021 will run across three geographical hubs. We hope in this way to make the conference as accessible as possible across our global community. All presentations will be pre-recorded and discussion rooms will be available for all participants to interact live online with speakers. There will also be designated poster space and live interactive poster sessions.

Proposals should span the range of interests of SMBE members, including exciting new scientific developments, and should represent the geographic and gender diversity of our membership. 

Symposium Proposal Guidelines

Please review the following guidelines before submitting a Symposium Proposal:

• Individuals can only be listed as an organiser for one symposium proposal, although organisers can be listed as an invited speaker on another proposal.

• Each symposium will include one invited speaker plus a number of contributed speakers.

• All invited speakers included within a symposium should have verbally agreed to be involved before the proposal is submitted.

• An individual can only give one talk at the SMBE meeting, so in the event that a speaker is invited to two successful symposium applications the organisers should consider a back up.

• Symposium organisers should provide a description of the symposium (2

  Continue Reading →