The global scientific community has created a continuously updated list of laboratories around the world that can host Ukrainian scientists at all career levels: https://bit.ly/ua-table. If your lab can host a scientist, you can add your name to the list by filling out this form: https://bit.ly/ua-form.

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Dear SMBE Members,

We are writing with three important announcements about the annual meeting, plus two calls for Award nominations and applications for this year.

1. We are pleased to announce the launch of SMBE Everywhere, a series of 8-12 virtual Global Symposia which will occur across the year starting in July 2022 through March 2023. The first virtual Global Symposium will occur on July 11-12, 2022, so please mark your calendars! 

This first symposium will feature the Graduate Student Excellence Symposium, the 2022 Faculty Awards Symposium, and the Presidential Address. On the second day of the symposium, we will be holding a Sustainability Plenary, an Inclusivity & Equity Panel Discussion, and the SMBE business meeting. Please mark your calendars, and see details below on Abstract Submission for the Graduate Student Excellence Symposium!

The full slate of one-day, themed virtual Global Symposia (GS) will be announced later this spring and will all be hosted on a single platform, with the option to attend one, some, or all of the Global Symposia throughout the year via a single registration portal.

2. We would like to make a call for submissions for additional one-day Global Symposia proposals. We have received outstanding submissions, but given the format for this year’s meeting, we are inviting submissions for proposals from organizers in Asia, South America, and Africa, specifically (for informal enquiries, contact smbe.contact@gmail.com). 

Please submit Global Symposia proposals by email to smbe.contact@gmail.com by 20 February 2022 with “Global Symposium proposal” in the subject line.

Symposium Proposal Guidelines

• Symposium organisers should provide a description of the symposium (250 words max) that will be made public if selected. The symposium organisers will also provide a description of how their proposal brings forward the SMBE’s objective of equity and diversity, as well as any additional information for the committee to make an informed review (250 words max)
• Each symposium will include 1-2 invited speakers plus a number of contributed speakers
• Individuals can only be listed as an organiser for one symposium proposal, although organisers can be listed as an invited speaker on another proposal

3. We would like to open the SMBE Everywhere Logo Competition. Entries should be submitted in a vector-based format (*.ai, *.eps, *.pdf) to smbe.contact@gmail.com by 15 March for full consideration. The email subject line should read "SMBE everywhere logo competition" and the winning entry will be notified and will receive a $500 award.

4. The SMBE Graduate Student Excellence Award provides a forum for young investigators to showcase their exemplary research at the ann

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Dear SMBE Members,

Regretfully, due to the ongoing uncertainties surrounding the COVID19 pandemic, the Auckland Local Organizing Committee and SMBE Council have made the very difficult decision to cancel the planned in-person SMBE 2022 meeting in Auckland. SMBE Council is very grateful to the LOC for all of their tremendous efforts to organize this meeting.

Despite the disappointing news, we are very excited to announce plans for SMBE Everywhere in 2022. SMBE Everywhere will consist of a series of 10-12 virtual “Global Symposia” focused on a different topic staggered across the calendar between April 2022 and March 2023 (~1-2 per month). Each Global Symposium (GS) will consist of 1 day of virtual talks, a poster session, and opportunities for live Q & A and discussion.

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Tēnā koutou, hello!

The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) annual conference will be held as a hybrid conference both onsite in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland in Aotearoa / New Zealand, and online, from 10-14 July 2022. This conference will be an opportunity for many of us to reconnect and to build new relationships (whanaungatanga, in our Indigenous language, Māori).

We’re delighted to announce that we are now accepting proposals for symposium topics for the 2022 conference. The deadline for symposia applications is 30 November 2021 (23:59 NZT).

Note that as a hybrid conference our symposia will be run live online as well as in-person; speakers, chairs and participants can attend remotely. We encourage symposia that capture the breadth of SMBE membership in terms of research areas, geographical area and diverse participants.

Please visit https://www.smbe2022.org/call-for-symposia/ – to access the submission portal.

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

Key dates

• 30 November 2021 (23:59 NZT) – Deadline for symposia applications
• 15 December 2021 – Symposia selection process concludes
• 20 January 2022 – Abstract submission system opens and selected symposia announced to Society
• 20 February 2022 (23:59 NZT) – Abstract submission system closes
• 28 April 2022 – Talks and posters finalized by SMBE reviewers
• 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
• E

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Each year, SMBE provides funds in aid for SMBE SATELLITE, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND REGIONAL MEETINGS. These meetings are organized and held independent of the SMBE annual meeting.

SMBE is now calling for proposals for meetings and actions to be held between Jan 2022 and Dec 31st 2022. Funds will be awarded on a competitive basis to members of the molecular evolution research community to run workshops/meetings on an important, focused, and timely topic of their choice. The number of awards will depend on the quality of proposals and total cost. However, given the paucity of meetings for some time, we may fund more proposals this year.

The EXTENDED deadline for submission of proposals is November 17th 2021.

SMBE SATELLITE MEETINGS

These are workshops or small, topically focused meetings with fewer than 100 participants that are organized and held independent of the SMBE annual meeting. In the past five years, SMBE has supported multiple satellite meetings on diverse topics, a sample of our most recent Satellite meetings include:

• “Mitochondrial Genomics and Evolution” 2017
• “Evolution of microbes in natural and experimental populations – synthesis and synergies” 2017
• “Molecular evolution and medicine” 2017
• “Evolution of genome architecture” 2017
• “Molecular evolution and the cell” 2018
• “Genome Evolution in Pathogen Transmission and Disease” 2018
• “Modern Methods for the study of ancient DNA” 2018
• “Molecular Biology and Evolution of Cancer” 2019
• “Towards an integrated concept of adaptation: uniting molecular population genetics and quantitative genetics” 2019

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We are delighted to announce this year’s Graduate Student Excellence Award winners and the winners of the Best Graduate Student Paper Awards!

Graduate Student Excellence Awards

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 of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE).

Catarina Branco, Biomedical Research Center (CINBIO), University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain. Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Immunology, University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Title: Influence of the Last Glacial Period on the genetic diversity of current Southeast Asians

Ian Vasconcellos Caldas, Department of Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

Title: Inferring selective sweep parameters through supervised learning

Alida de Flamingh, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

Title: Sourcing Elephant Ivory from a Sixteenth-Century Portuguese Shipwreck

Michelle P Harwood, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Title: Recombination and population demographics impact allele-specific-expression of deleterious variants in human populations

Amanda Kowalczyk, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Title: Pan-mammalian analysis of molecular constraints underlying extended lifespan in mammals

Yeonwoo Park, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Title: Historical memory, epistasis, and contingency in long-term protein evolution

Thea F. Rogers, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Title: Sex-specific selection drives the evolution of alternative splicing in birds

Mengyi Sun, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Title: Preferred synonymous codons are more accurately translated: proteomic evidence, among-species variation, and mechanistic basis

Best Graduate Student Paper

These awards provide recognition for outstand

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