Evolutionary Biology Workshop in the Alps (The previous posting contained a typo in an invited professor’s name, for which we apologize.) The 2017 edition of the Evolutionary Biology Workshop in the Alps will take place on 17-23 June 2017 in Riederfurka, Switzerland. Target participants are PhD students in early stages of PhD and advanced Master students.
The main goals of this annual workshop, based on a concept developed by Stephen Stearns and John Maynard Smith, are to develop the following skills: • developing your scientific ideas through discussions in groups; • thinking critically and expressing oneself clearly; • turning a general idea into a research project; • writing a research proposal and defending it. Faculty: Lynda Delph (Indiana University) Curt Lively (Indiana University) Noah Whiteman (University of California Berkeley) Sergio Rasmann (University of Neuchatel) Tadeusz Kawecki (University of Lausanne) It is you, the students, who will be in charge in this course. You will be divided in groups of 4-5 students. In those groups, you will work on your ideas.
You, as a group, will decide what the important open questions in broadly defined evolutionary biology are, you will choose one, and attempt to develop a proposal for a research project that will address it. The faculty will visit the groups during the discussions to answer questions, provide coaching and give feedback on the projects, but they will generally take the back seat. Additionally, the faculty will give informal talks about their research and be available for informal discussions with individual students. At the end you will present your projects to other participants, and we will party.
The workshop will take place in Villa Cassel (http://bit.ly/1Jjwbyh), at 2000 m of altitude, in a 110 year old villa where Winston Churchill once stayed, amid the magnificent mountain landscape of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a walking distance from the largest glacier of the Alps. This isolated site will help you to concentrate on the course while giving you also the chance to enjoy the views and the alpine flora. Fee: CHF 490.- Participants will receive a course certificate for 3 ETCS credits. To apply, send a single file (pdf or rtf) containing a short motivation letter including a brief summary of your research interest, a cv, and the name of your scientific advisor to Caroline Betto-Colliard , with Cc to tadeusz.kawecki@unil.ch . Please put “Evolutionary workshop” in the subject. Application deadline: 29 January 2017.