CoyneFest schedule, October 14-15

September 20, 2016 • 10:30 am

A while back I announced that there would be a symposium at the University of Chicago to celebrate—if that’s the right word—my retirement. The time and place, announced before, are the same:

Friday, October 14, 2016 – 9:00 am until 5:00 pm
Saturday, October 15, 2016 – 9:30 am until 11:00 am

Location:  Gordon Center for Integrative Science, 929 E. 57th Street, Room W301.

Everyone’s welcome, and there are places to buy lunch nearby. We now have a schedule with speakers and most titles, which may be subject to some revision, but not much. Talks will be short, around 20 minutes each. I have instructed all speakers not to say anything good about me, whereupon one contrarian (Turelli) said he’ll instruct all speakers to say bad things about me. That’s okay by me—I’m used to it.

FRIDAY 9:00-10:10am

Bruce Grant College of William and Mary. Moths are bigger than flies!
Greg Mayer University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Geographic variation in paradise kingfishers: the classic case of peripatric speciation.
Mohamed Noor Duke University. How much do chromosomal inversions prevent gene conversion and interspecies gene flow?

Break 10:10-10:40

FRIDAY 10:40-12:00m

Manyuan Long University of Chicago. Rapid evolution of new genes and phenotypes.
John Willis Duke University. Why reproductive isolation in flowering plants and “mammals” is not always like it is in flies.
Kelly Dyer University of Georgia. The evolution of reinforcement in mushroom-feeding Drosophila.
Ana Llopart  University of Iowa When genomes drift apart: insights Drosophila yakuba and D. santomea

LUNCH 12:00-13:30

FRIDAY 13:30-15:10

Doug Schemske Michigan State University. Ecological genetics of adaptation in the fruitfly Arabidopsis thaliana [What a joker!]
Michael Turelli University of California. Davis Some new results about Wolbachia in Drosophila species.
Amanda Moehring Western University. The genetic basis of female preference and species isolation.
Colin Meiklejohn University of Nebraska. Dissecting the large X-effect in Drosophila speciation: high resolution mapping and population genomic analyses.
Daven Presgraves University of Rochester. Sex chromosomes & speciation: determining the molecular basis of the large X effect for hybrid sterility in Drosophila.

Break 15:10-15:40

FRIDAY 15:40-17:00

Nick Barton Institute of Science and Technology Austria. What have we learnt about speciation?
Brian Charlesworth University of Edinburgh. The influence of Genetic recombination on molecular evolution and variation.
Daniel Matute University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. An experimental test of hybrid speciation.
Leonie Moyle Indiana University. Sexual selection as a driver of reproductive isolation.

SATURDAY 9:50-11:00

Corbin Jones University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Testing the ‘complexity hypothesis’.
Allen Orr University of Rochester. Why doesn’t evolution get stuck on local optima?
Matthew Cobb University of Manchester. Perfuming the species – chemical signals in Drosophila sexual behaviour.
Nitin Phadnis University of Utah. Selfish genes and speciation.

 

57 thoughts on “CoyneFest schedule, October 14-15”

  1. I absolutely think retirement is something to celebrate!

    Life is short. You’ve worked hard for a long time. Time to do things for fun, for yourself!

    Carpe diem!

  3. Symposium as in the ancient Greek meaning? That sounds appropriate!

    In any case, Congratulations! I wish I could attend.

  4. It must be an incredibly touching but also weird experience to have a whole symposium given in honor of your recent milestone. Congratulations.

  6. Have never been to a Symposium & Retirement Party before.

    • Do you/anyone want RSVPs?
    • Would gifts be appreciated/discouraged?
    • What public parking facility would you recommend?

    That, and do you get custody of the fruit flies?

    1. Anybody can come; no need for gifts; there’s a parking garage by the hospital but also at the NE corner of 55th Street and Ellis Avenue, only two blocks (go one south and one west from the garage) from the venue.

  9. Sounds like a fun symposium, but 2000 miles is too far.

    One thing I wonder about: Why are there scare quotes around “mammals” in John Willis’s title?

  11. Many of these look like fascinating talks. Will it be recorded? That’s quite easy nowadays and stuff this good deserves a wide audience! Doesn’t have to be pro quality.

      1. I agree with Lou, it looks like a lot of fascinating little talks.I am sure lots of your readers in Europe would love some form of access. If not recordings, maybe transcripts?

          1. There was a really great Festschrift for S. J. Gould. If I recall, it was a special issue of Paleobiology.

  12. A very fitting send-off into retirement. There’s no better way to celebrate an accomplished scientist with short and interesting lectures by other great scientists. I can’t help to notice the lack of squirrels and cats, but since several speakers are readers of this site, who knows what will happen.
    I wish I could attend, but it’s too far away for my budget right now. 🙁

  14. Congratulations on the Fest!

    Will the talks eventually be on You Tube or similar- the science would be over my head but the intellects and wit will be well worth listening to, I’ll bet….
    Science is like music, even although I don’t understand it well at all, it is inspiring.

  15. Congratulations! Very cool!

    Sounds like an excellent event. I’d love to attend, even though I’d understand little. If I win the lottery in time, I’ll fly there First Class though!

    And if gifts aren’t allowed, how about donations for/of squirrel food?

  16. Congratulations! What a wonderful event! It looks like old home week — Turelli and Charlesworth both. It takes me back, way back. Have a wonderful time! This is such an incredible event that I feel like every sentence requires an exclamation point.

    1. Reminds me of a Journal of Irreproducible Results article from long ago, something about “Mixed, pollinating flocks of [some tropical tree, I think, and I forget what they were doing…].”

      (Who sez it’s hard to stump Google?!)

      1. A candidate student’s work at our university contained the phrase “As a result of self-pollination of chicken…” (The kid meant mating of 1st generation chicken hybrids between themselves to obtain 2nd generation hybrids.)

        1. Ha, ha, these trips down memory lane are fun.

          I’m reminded of the time in my OTS (tropical biology) course in Costa Rica when we were supposed to be working out an energy budget for local farmers. One of us, in his best High School Spanish, approached a local small land-owner and asked, ¿Cuanto leche dan sus gallos? Or roughly, “how much milk do your chickens give?”

  19. Never mind the party stuff — that’s one hell of a symposium. I mean, your retirement party is going to do more to advance evolutionary biology than plenty of people manage in their entire careers….

    So…maybe make this the first annual Coynefest? Pretty please? Because I’d love to go to one, but there’s no way I’ll be able to make it this year….

    b&

  21. Congratulations!! What an all-star celebration. Pleas get someone to film so you can post the videos.

  23. Some Excellent talks lined up there.
    CoyneFested i will not be.
    Not so for all attendees.
    All be well for the day so said,
    Hope there be a smile,
    When one, retires to bed.

      1. I drew that in 5 min in FireAlpaca. I can send you the higher res original, or I can fix it up in Illustrator for a super clean, smooth image that you could print billboard sized.

          1. YES!!!!! T-shirts for all speakers, the rest of us can buy them and the proceeds can go to Doctors without Borders, or another worthy charity.
            It’s such a cute illustration!

      2. I went ahead and fixed it up in Illustrator, so if you need it, it’s ready to go at any time. Let me know which output formats and sizes you need and I’ll prepare them as well as send you the vector file.

          3. proper cat spelling?

            In a universe where 1 + 1 does not equal or even approximate to two, I’m still not sure that “proper cat spelling” would be a thing.

        2. YES. And again yes to suggestions regarding this worthy cat drawing!

          Since this seems that it could be a spontaneous rush project, may I suggest:
          cat and words exactly as they appear, but with addition of two more fruit flies and the addition at the bottom of “University of Chicago * October 14-15, 2016”. (I did a draft, but don’t know how to attach the jpg, as I have always been terrified of violation DaRoolz!)

          Poster could be a modest 2×3 poster, mounted on a lightweight board to stand on an easel (with colored sharpies, etc) where all presenters and guests can sign during the event.

          Small note to taped to easel that Prof Coyne requests that, if so motivated, people are encouraged to donate to his favorite non-profit Doctors Without Boarders.

          1. Adding more fruit flies is no problem. I’ve actually created an alternate ‘Coynefest’ title which can be fiddled with by just toggling visibility on the layers and moving it around. The cat and titles are on their own layers, and both a merged and unmerged versions are created. I can add in the other text on its own layer as well, and whoever is handling the graphic design will be able to edit it as they need.

          2. i.imgur.com/ UF6sxIo.png
            i.imgur.com/ Vc5k52g.png

            Remove the space added after the /
            Hopefully it’ll just give the text instead of pasting the images here!

          3. Yikes! Clicked on the link, joined imgur, and can find/search for your image! *If possible* can you just send versions to my email? (Nothing will be done with it w/o approval of Prof. Coyne.) Email: susmart3@gmail.com

  26. A plethora of congratulations to you, Jerry. I truly wish I could attend. I wonder if the presenters would be willing to write precis that you might post on your site. Or if any readers of the site attend, please post summaries somewhere we can view them.

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