From EESwiki

EES Newsletter

Issue 02: March 2008

What’s new with the EESLMU Program?

A lot! It has been an exciting and eventful winter semester at the Biozentrum. The EES program has held its first Master conference and the first group of EES Master students have finished up their first semester. The EES program has hosted a number of great speakers in the highly successful bi-weekly EES seminar series. We are proud to bring you the second EES newsletter, highlighting events from 2007 and presenting those to come in 2008.

EES Agenda 2008:

18th March -Teamwork Seminar for PhD students
29-30th March -Writing Course for PhD students
14th April -Start of Summer Semester
29th April -Seminar: Laurent Excoffier (Berlin)
13th May -Seminar: Brian Charlesworth(Edinburgh)
27th May -Seminar: Manfred Milinski (MPI of Evolutionary Biology)
24th June -Seminar: Tatiana Giraud (Paris-Sud)
8th July -Seminar: Dieter Ebert (Basel)
18th July -Seminar: John Wakeley (Harvard)
28th July -2nd EES Summer Excursion
14-19th Sept -2nd EES Summer School
1-2nd Oct -2nd EES Conference

EES Summer School 2008

Topic: The Evolution of Sex Chromosomes
This year’s summer school will be held again at the Fraueninsel in Chiemsee. The speakers will be comprised of professors and research professionals from the USA (Daven Presgraves, Rochester; Sander van Doorn, Sante Fe), Sweden (Judith Mank, Uppsala) and Scotland (Deborah Charlesworth, Edinburgh) . This international panel of instructors will cover theoretical aspects of sex chromosome evolution along with empirical results from the diverse systems of plants, insects and birds. Specific topics will include the origin, role and sexual selection of sex chromosomes, molecular evolution of sex-linked genes, as well as gene content and expression of sex chromosomes. Participating students working on a related topic will be asked to give a short presentation on their research. Included will be an afternoon excursion to the nearby alps. Details are available on the EESLMU website under Summer school 2008. Questions can be directed to John Parsch (main organizer), Bart Kempenaers, Susanne Renner or Pleuni Pennings.

The Fraueninsel, where the EES Summer School will be held. Located southeast of Munich in Chiemsee.

14 Students used EES Grants in 2007

The EES program offers Diploma, Master and PhD students the possibility to apply for grants to visit conferences as well as other activities. Many of the 14 students who received an EES grant last year used the money to visit a conference where they presented their own work, but there were some exceptions. Rita Verma, a PhD student used her grant to collect mycorhiza in Norway. A Diploma student, Annete Leingärtner working on the behavioral ecology of ants, used the funding to learn how to detect biologically active substances in the Dufour glands of ants. In addition, freshly graduated PhD student Nina Stoletzki visited a collaborator in England in order to write a grant proposal for a postdoc position in Brighton. For more information and how to apply, see the EES website.

Farwells and Greetings in 2008: Staff Changes

Joachim Hermisson has left LMU to become a professor of mathematics and biosciences at the University of Vienna, his postdoc Michael Kopp has made the move as well. Thassilo Franke, an assistant of professor Agerer will be leaving the university in pursue of a career in the film industry at Nautilus. Steffen Beisswanger (assistant of professor Stephan) has accepted a position working for Novartis. Another assistant of professor Stephan, Peter Pfaffelhuber will be moving to Freiburg to take a position as professor of systems biology. The Biozentrum welcomes Dirk Metzler from the University of Frankfurt who will begin next fall as professor of statistical genetics.

EES Seminar Series

The EES program has coordinated a bi-weekly seminar series that runs for the duration of each semester. The coordinators are Aurelien Tellier, Stefan Laurent and Pleuni Pennings. Check out the agenda above and the EES website to get information on who will be presenting every second Tuesday.

Volvox Speaker: Patricia Beldade

On November 29th the Volvox group of EES PhD students organized a seminar with Patricia Beldade. Patricia is an evolutionary biologist currently working on “Evolutionary Diversification of Form” based at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. In 2003 Patricia was awarded the John Maynard Smith prize for outstanding young researcher in the field of evolutionary biology. The award was for her work on the genetic basis of phenotypic variation, the evolution and development of butterfly wing patterns. At the Biozentrum seminar, Patricia gave a fascinating talk about the developmental and genetic basis of pattern formation in butterflies. After her presentation audience attendees were invited to join Patricia in a round table lunch session. It was a great afternoon of information flow and idea exchange between researchers in the field of evolutionary biology. It will be exciting to see whom the Volvox organization invite to present at the Biozentrum next.

From Patricia’s 2007 article in Heredity. For more information on Patricia’s research and group visit her website

Upcoming EES Courses

EES Master Students Update

The EES Master students have completed their first semester at LMU. This semester concentrated on building the students base knowledge in ecology, evolution and systematics the three pillars of the program. The students also received training in scientific writing as well as in preparation and professional delivery of presentations. A visiting Chilean student, Patricia Silva returned home at the end of February. The EES students were sad to see her leave, but wish her all the best back in Chili, as she completes her thesis. Next semester the students will be choosing from a variety of courses (see table), which will allow them to specialize in their fields of interest. They will also be taking a weekly seminar on global change, taught by Jonathan Jeschke and Stephan Hutter.

EES Master students Pablo Duchen, Delsy Trujillo and Patricia Silva at the Paleontology Institute.

Apply to Join the EES for Winter Semester 08/09

The EES Master program is now accepting applications for its second year, which begins in the winter semester of 2008. Application deadlines are 30.04.08 for non-EU students and 30.06.08 for EU students. The program is conducted in English and applicants require certification of proficiency in English or a degree from an English university or college. Specifics regarding application procedure and information for Diploma students wishing to transfer to the Master program can be found on the EES website under Application procedure. Applications are to be sent to the program coordinator, Pleuni Pennings.