REMINDER: KEC Foundation Symposium on Translational Evolutionary Research, September 30th 2016

Dear colleague,

We cordially invite you to the foundation symposium of the Kiel Evolution Center at the Zoological Museum in Kiel on Friday 30 September 2016!

Evolutionary biology is one of the central theories of biology and the life sciences – with increasing impact on various biological fields, medicine, agriculture, and also environmental sciences. In spite of these developments, there is still a gap between an understanding of basic evolutionary mechanisms and the transfer of that knowledge into the various disciplines of the life sciences. Here, we believe that Kiel area can make a difference, owing to broad evolutionary expertise that has accumulated during the past 10 years at various institutions, including Kiel University, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, and the Leibniz Center for Medicine and Biosciences in Borstel.

Kiel Evolution Center has been established as an interactive platform that integrates and coordinates evolutionary activities in research, teaching, and public outreach. Next to supporting activities in the core fields of evolutionary biology, the Kiel Evolution Center aims at promoting interdisciplinary crosstalk among evolutionary biologists and scientists from other disciplines in order to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to current major challenges in medicine, agriculture, and wildlife conservation.

The foundation symposium is specifically dedicated to the latter aspect, Translational Evolutionary Research. International pioneers of interdisciplinary evolutionary research will join Kiel experts to showcase current developments in evolutionary biology and how such knowledge can be applied to current problems like effective cancer therapy, the antibiotic crisis, the spread of disease in agriculture, or species conservation during global change.

With best wishes,

John Baines, Tal Dagan, Thorsten Reusch, Eva Stukenbrock, and Hinrich Schulenburg
(The Kiel Evolution Center Foundation Committee)