BES Facebook pageParasite & Pathogen Ecology & Evolution
Secretary: Joanne Lello
Aims
- Be a central forum for parasite and pathogen ecologists and evolutionary biologists to make and maintain contacts, exchange and discuss ideas and promote useful events. As a part of this aim the group will play a role in encouraging early career development.
- Seek collectively to understand the causes of variation in parasite-host interactions with a focus on the ecological and evolutionary influences.
- Form a coherent body of scientists who can act as a force to inform government policy on funding, conservation and health with respect to parasites and pathogens.
- To evolve according the ideas and needs of its membership.
Our special interest group had its official inception at the BES annual meeting in Sheffield University (12th September 2011). Our fast growing membership (95 at 27th January 2012) consists of academic staff, research staff and students from around twenty UK institutions. The only requirement of membership is that you have an interest in some aspect of (micro or macro) parasite ecology or evolution.
The SIG is managed by a committee and they are:
SIG Group Committee Chair: Joanne Lello, (Cardiff University)
Scientific Advisor: Mike Begon, (University of Liverpool)
Early Career Member: John Bielby, (London Zoological Society)
Liaison to British Society for Parasitology (BSP): Jo Cable (Cardiff University)
Meetings Secretary: Andrew Fenton, (University of Liverpool)
Student Member: Emily Griffiths, (University of Sheffield)
Treasurer: Sarah Perkins,(Cardiff University)
Communications Secretary: Sean Rands, (University of Bristol)
Entertainment Secretary: Olivier Restif, (Cambridge University)
The first activity of our SIG will be a special BES sponsored symposium at the British Society for Parasitology 50th Anniversary celebration meeting in Spring 2012 at Strathclyde University ( http://www.bsp.uk.net/news-and-events/bsp-events/spring-meeting-2012/) from the 2nd to the 5th of April. There is a strong ecology programme throughout the event. The BES symposium is entitled “Ecology meets Medicine” with keynote speaker Prof Leslie Real (Emory University). Prof Mike Begon will act as session chair and in this role will summarise and report on the key discussion points of the event.
One of the key aims of the BES symposium will be to inform the focus of for the next SIG event, a research retreat, again on the topic of “Ecology meets medicine”, which will take place in the summer of 2012. This second event will be aimed at forming collaborative research grouping and beginning a number of group papers on the key topics highlighted at the BSP symposium event. The general structure of the meeting will take the form of a few leading presentations, followed by smaller break-out groups to discuss specific topics under the primary theme. Due to the nature of this event numbers will be limited. It is also aimed primarily at post-doctoral level and above. Other events will focus more on PhD and career development and details on these will follow.
We also have our sights set firmly on the INTECOL conference in 2013 and have put forward an application to present a symposium at the event on the "Community Ecology of Infectious Diseases". Already we have an exciting line-up of speakers who have agreed to present if we are successful, these include: Keynote: Prof Robert Poulin: University of Otago, New Zealand, Prof Craig Packer: University of Minnesota, Dr Pieter Johnson: University of Colorado, Prof Armand Kuris: University of California, Prof Serge Morand: Université Montpellier, and Prof Andy, Dobson: Princeton University. A decision will be with us sometime in March and we’ll keep you posted about the outcome.
More events and activities will be planned over the coming year. You can keep up to date by joining our mailing list. The list is also used by the community to advertise other events, post job information and make requests. The list is being used with great discretion (only a few very relevant emails are going around) so you can join up without fear of being spammed. We hope you will be excited to join us and be part of this growing community. You can sign up to our mailing list very easily by filling in your details at: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A1=ind1108&L=BESPARASITEECOLOGYGROUP&O=T&H=1&D=1&T=1 .
Contact
Biomedical Sciences Building,
Museum Avenue,
Cardiff,
CF10 3AX
