Code of Ethics Policy
The Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) prohibits all forms of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation at Society meetings. Behavior that undermines the integrity of intellectual discourse and interactions will not be tolerated at Society meetings. For the Society's full Code of Ethics policy, click Code of Ethics.
Evolution 2026: Cleveland, OH, US
Registration for the 2026 Evolution Meetings, presented jointly with the American Society of Naturalists and the Society for the Study of Evolution, is now open! The meeting will occur in two halves: the virtual component May 20-22, 2026 and the in-person component June 20-24, 2026 in Cleveland, OH. Registration, logistics, and more information about the meeting can be found on www.evolutionmeetings.org/. Early bird registration closes April 15.
SSB is sponsoring a range of content at the meeting:
Additionally, SSB is sponsoring two events hosted by SSB members!
Workshop: Designing for Discovery: Shaping Imageomics Tools for Biologists - OPEN for registration via Evolution Meetings registration site
Date: June 20, 2026
Time: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Cost: $10 per person
Max capacity: 70 people
Cost: $10
Organizers: Diane Boghrat (lead contact: [email protected]), Dr. Elizabeth Campolongo, Dr. Wei-Lun Chao, Dr. Jianyang Gu, Dr. Brittany Fonner, Dr. Hilmar Lapp, Dr. Sydne Record, Dr. Matthew Thompson, Dr. Josef Uyeda, Dr. Net Zhang
Description:
Imageomics is an emerging interdisciplinary field at the crossroads of machine learning (ML), computer vision (CV), and biological sciences. It leverages visual data–from microscopic images of unicellular organisms to videos of megafauna–to extract and analyze biological traits. By grounding ML models in existing scientific knowledge, the emerging field of imageomics aims to make traits computable from images and videos, facilitating insights into the evolution and function of living organisms. This half-day workshop focuses on making imageomics tools more accessible and usable for biologists and will be centered on co-development, where tool refinement and new use cases emerge through active partnership with biologists. During the workshop, selected Imageomics Institute tools for taxonomic identification and trait segmentation, exploration, and classification will be demonstrated. We will highlight the potential applications of these tools toward facilitating the measurement of evolutionary traits for biodiversity science, systematics, and evolutionary biology, as well as the measurement of complex traits such as behaviors from videos.
Symposium: “Genetic diversity in ecological communities: A new biodiversity pattern that unifies ecological and evolutionary timescales.”
Time: June 21, 2026. Exact session time and room TBA.
Organizers: Dr. Isaac Overcast, Dr. Arianna Kuhn, Dr. Deren Eaton, and Dr. Rosemary Gillespie
Biodiversity exists within a complex matrix of interacting species and changing environments. Ecological and evolutionary processes jointly shape the distribution of genetic diversity between individuals, populations, and species within the assemblage. Genetic diversity is an important component of biodiversity, but is rarely examined alongside more traditional measures of taxonomic and phylogenetic biodiversity.
Emerging molecular methods allow for rapid, cost-effective, and information-rich surveys of genetic diversity, not just for a focal taxon, but whole communities, spanning guilds, trophic levels, and ecosystems. Tools are needed to integrate novel biodiversity datasets for more comprehensive inventories and to gain insight into the history, stability, and assembly of biological systems in a changing world. In this symposium, we highlight research leveraging the Community Genetic Distribution (CGD), which simultaneously captures among- and within-taxa components of whole-community biodiversity. Bringing together empirical case studies and theoretical models reveals how multi-scale ecological and evolutionary processes shape the CGD, and how
statistical tools and machine learning approaches can be used to extract biodiversity insight from this emerging biodiversity pattern.
Ecological context undoubtedly impacts evolutionary processes, what is an adaptive radiation if not the exploitation of ecological opportunity? We are entering a new regime where it is now possible to sample genetic data at large spatial and taxonomic scales, where the feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary processes are well recognized, and where advancements in statistical and computational tools, as well as
integration of multi-scale data into machine learning pipelines, will enable a new kind of transdisciplinary investigation of biodiversity. Community genetic diversity is a new biodiversity variable that sits at the nexus of ecology and evolution, yet it remains largely unexplored.
SSB is sponsoring a range of content at the meeting:
- The Past Presidential talk, given by Past President Jessica Ware
- The Ernst Mayr Symposium, which occurs in the virtual component of the meeting
- A mixer for members of the society
Additionally, SSB is sponsoring two events hosted by SSB members!
Workshop: Designing for Discovery: Shaping Imageomics Tools for Biologists - OPEN for registration via Evolution Meetings registration site
Date: June 20, 2026
Time: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Cost: $10 per person
Max capacity: 70 people
Cost: $10
Organizers: Diane Boghrat (lead contact: [email protected]), Dr. Elizabeth Campolongo, Dr. Wei-Lun Chao, Dr. Jianyang Gu, Dr. Brittany Fonner, Dr. Hilmar Lapp, Dr. Sydne Record, Dr. Matthew Thompson, Dr. Josef Uyeda, Dr. Net Zhang
Description:
Imageomics is an emerging interdisciplinary field at the crossroads of machine learning (ML), computer vision (CV), and biological sciences. It leverages visual data–from microscopic images of unicellular organisms to videos of megafauna–to extract and analyze biological traits. By grounding ML models in existing scientific knowledge, the emerging field of imageomics aims to make traits computable from images and videos, facilitating insights into the evolution and function of living organisms. This half-day workshop focuses on making imageomics tools more accessible and usable for biologists and will be centered on co-development, where tool refinement and new use cases emerge through active partnership with biologists. During the workshop, selected Imageomics Institute tools for taxonomic identification and trait segmentation, exploration, and classification will be demonstrated. We will highlight the potential applications of these tools toward facilitating the measurement of evolutionary traits for biodiversity science, systematics, and evolutionary biology, as well as the measurement of complex traits such as behaviors from videos.
Symposium: “Genetic diversity in ecological communities: A new biodiversity pattern that unifies ecological and evolutionary timescales.”
Time: June 21, 2026. Exact session time and room TBA.
Organizers: Dr. Isaac Overcast, Dr. Arianna Kuhn, Dr. Deren Eaton, and Dr. Rosemary Gillespie
Biodiversity exists within a complex matrix of interacting species and changing environments. Ecological and evolutionary processes jointly shape the distribution of genetic diversity between individuals, populations, and species within the assemblage. Genetic diversity is an important component of biodiversity, but is rarely examined alongside more traditional measures of taxonomic and phylogenetic biodiversity.
Emerging molecular methods allow for rapid, cost-effective, and information-rich surveys of genetic diversity, not just for a focal taxon, but whole communities, spanning guilds, trophic levels, and ecosystems. Tools are needed to integrate novel biodiversity datasets for more comprehensive inventories and to gain insight into the history, stability, and assembly of biological systems in a changing world. In this symposium, we highlight research leveraging the Community Genetic Distribution (CGD), which simultaneously captures among- and within-taxa components of whole-community biodiversity. Bringing together empirical case studies and theoretical models reveals how multi-scale ecological and evolutionary processes shape the CGD, and how
statistical tools and machine learning approaches can be used to extract biodiversity insight from this emerging biodiversity pattern.
Ecological context undoubtedly impacts evolutionary processes, what is an adaptive radiation if not the exploitation of ecological opportunity? We are entering a new regime where it is now possible to sample genetic data at large spatial and taxonomic scales, where the feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary processes are well recognized, and where advancements in statistical and computational tools, as well as
integration of multi-scale data into machine learning pipelines, will enable a new kind of transdisciplinary investigation of biodiversity. Community genetic diversity is a new biodiversity variable that sits at the nexus of ecology and evolution, yet it remains largely unexplored.
For a full list of future joint meetings with the Society for the Study of Evolution and the American Society of Naturalists, please see the joint meeting website.