The Society of Systematic Biologists advances the science of systematic biology in all its aspects of theory, principles, methodology, and practice, for both living and fossil organisms, with emphasis on areas of common interest to all systematic biologists regardless of individual specialization.

Recent News

Call for Nominations: Student Council Representative

​The Society of Systematic Biologists Council is inviting nominations for one new graduate
student representative for 2021-2022. The elected student representative will serve a 2-year term beginning January 1, 2021. 
 
As a member of the SSB Council, you will have the opportunity to participate in the workings of a society and interact with many of the great researchers in the society. Student council members will aid the society in developing initiatives to better serve our student members, participate in council meetings to provide input, and engage with student representatives from other societies (e.g., the American Society of Naturalists and the Society for the Study of Evolution) to support joint activities, such as student-oriented events at the Evolution meetings.
 
Student representatives are expected to be active members of SSB, to attend the annual Evolution meeting (travel costs and one night of accommodation are covered by the society), and to serve on the council for their full term (extension into postdoctoral work is fine).

Nominate yourself or a student you know by November 20, 2020!
Student Representative Nominations

Call for Nominations: The Inclusiveness, Diversity, Equity, & Access (IDEA) Award

The American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists announce the call for nominations for the 2nd annual ASN/SSE/SSB Inclusiveness, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Award. The IDEA Award will be given to a person at any career stage who has strengthened the ecology and evolutionary biology community by promoting inclusiveness and diversity in our fields. The award can also be presented to a group. The recipient(s) will each receive a plaque at the annual meeting of ASN/SSB/SSE and a $1000 honorarium (shared among recipients if more than one).

Nominate yourself or someone you know by January 15, 2021!

Support Diversity Initiatives in Evolutionary Biology

Former SSB President (2006), Dr. Scott Edwards, is in the middle of a weeks-long bicycle journey from the East to West Coast of the United States! On this trip, Dr. Edwards is helping to raise awareness of the challenges faced by Black and Indigenous people of color studying biodiversity and evolution. In honor of his amazing accomplishments in science and cycling, a fund-raising campaign has been created to support initiatives that will enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion in systematics and evolutionary biology. The funds will go to programs like Undergraduate Diversity at Evolution, which was founded by Dr. Edwards and Dr. Richard Kliman in 2001. They were recently recognized for this work as the inaugural winners of the SSB/SSE/ASN IDEA Award. 

Please consider supporting Dr. Edwards and his dedication to diversifying the field of evolutionary biology! And you can watch his progress across the US by following @ScottVEdwards1 on Twitter!
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Photo used with permission from S.V. Edwards

The 2020 Joint Evolution Meetings Canceled

The Society of Systematic Biologists Council regrets to inform you that the 2020 Evolution Meeting scheduled for June 19-23 in Cleveland, OH has been canceled. The council members of all three societies (SSB, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the American Society of Naturalists) voted to cancel the conference for 2020 because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. SSB, SSE, ASN, and the conference organizers feel that it is important to prioritize the health of our members and communities and to do what we can to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The Society of Systematic Biologists would especially like to recognize the lead meeting organizers–Howard Rundle and Mitch Cruzan–for their tireless efforts planning the conference and then working with the purveyors in Cleveland to negotiate the cancellation. Additionally, SSB's representative on the Joint Meeting Council–Kelly Zamudio–has also done an excellent job advocating for our members and keeping the SSB council informed as the situation developed. 

The next joint Evolution Meeting will be held June 25-29, 2021 in Albuquerque, NM. The conference organizers are working to adapt the 2021 schedule to accommodate the symposia and other events that will not be held this year. Please stay tuned for updates about future Evolution Meetings!

Code of Conduct

We have a code of conduct at all our meetings; we encourage reporting of issues to members of the joint meeting council or members of our executive committee. All three societies are dedicated to making the meeting a welcoming place to all with no discrimination or harassment. To this end, we have created a form to aggregate the useful suggestions that have come in so far. To provide a suggestion, go here. To see the suggestions so far, please go here (SSB does not vet or approve of these suggestions -- we're merely aggregating them now for future discussion). Note that the form has been populated with public suggestions proposed on Twitter and Facebook so far (though the comments were made associated with names, it's not clear that people want their name associated, so only the first initial is included -- if you want your name included, please contact Brian O'Meara). We'll be doing more moving forward -- this is just a rapid response to capture ideas while they're fresh