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Just is a polite reminder that the seminar calendar in the right hand margin is no longer working properly owing to a technical problem with our calendar provider. We apologise for the inconvenience caused, and we are doing all we can to rectify the problem. We will continue to announce seminars via e-mail, so please subscribe via the 'Mailing list' link in the left hand margin or contact: cee@ucl.ac.uk
With kind regards
The CEE Committee
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]]>What is it all about?
Soapbox Science is an annual public science communication event that transforms public areas in central London into an arena for public learning and scientific debate. The event follows the format of Hyde Park's Speaker's Corner, which is historically an arena for public debate. With Soapbox Science, we want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy, learn from, heckle, question, probe, interact with and be inspired by some of the UK's leading scientists.
More here:
https://sites.google.com/site/soapboxscience/home
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When: December 5th 2012
Where: Zoological Society (London Zoo)
Speakers:
Simon Bearder, Oxford Brookes University (Osman Hill Memorial Lecturer)
Primate Taxonomy in the Field: New insights into Biodiversity, Biogeography and Phylogeny.
Andrea Cardini, University of Modena and Reggio-Emilia
Primate biogeography in the phenomic era: is there a role for digital taxonomy?
Terry Dawson, University of Dundee
What future for primates in the age of the anthropocene?
Alexander Harcourt, University of California, Davis.
Human Biogeography. Is Man Merely a Monkey?
Jason Kamilar, Midwestern University
The biogeography of primate communities: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives
Shawn Lehman, University of Toronto
Where the Wild Things Are: Lemur Conservation Biogeography in the 21st Century.
Robert Marchant, University of York
East African Forest dynamics: understanding past distributions to guide present and future conservation challenges
Vincent Nijman, Oxford Brookes University
Biogeography and primate conservation: case studies from Java and Borneo
Sam Turvey, Zoological Society London
Primate extinctions and biogeographic change during the Holocene
Register at:http://www.psgb.org/meeting_detail.php?ID=PSGB-Winter-Meeting-2012
Prices from £25 (for members) - £75 (non-members); includes coffee breaks and admission to the zoo at lunchtime, where conference participants can eat their packed lunches or purchase food at one of the various cafes.
Organisers: Helen Chatterjee (UCL), Sarah Elton (Durham University), Russell Hill (Durham University), Sam Turvey (ZSL).
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22 February 2012 at 4pm, followed by a reception.
We are delighted to announce the following speakers:
David Gems (Institute of Healthy Ageing, UCL): ‘New perspectives on the evolution of aging: the bloated soma theory’
and
Daryl Shanley (Institute for Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle): ‘Systems development of the disposable soma’
Venue: The Natural History Museum, Flett Lecture Theatre
Please remember the early start at 4pm and enter the NHM to get to the Flett Theatre via the Exhibition Road entrance –come through the tunnel as the road is blocked on top!!
(After you leave the turnstiles at South Kensington, turn sharply right and go under the streets through the tunnel, leave at the exit marked Natural History Museum and at street level turn left and go north (towards the park) until you come to the big flag with a letter N on it which marks the Exhibition Road entrance – staff there can direct you to the Flett Theatre). Further details here
All are welcome to this annual CEE event at the Natural History Museum.
Download poster here
]]>The CEE is calling for applications to its Research Grants scheme.
The grant round will be the last to be financed through as award from the University of London Vice Chancellors' Development fund made to the CEE in 2007. The aim of the grant scheme is to foster collaborative research across the CEE's participating institutions. In today's world, the importance of understanding ecology and evolution goes far beyond academic curiosity. With its breadth of membership, the CEE is in a unique position to provide the cross-disciplinary research necessary to make genuine progress in the field. The small grant scheme will contribute to realising potential cross-institutional synergies.
Our aim is to assign several small grants to groups of researchers that span two or more member institutions. Funding can be sought for a variety of activities, including small research projects, workshops, meetings between scientists in view of writing a review, setting up an international collaboration or preparing a grant application. Grants are assessed following the criteria listed at the end of this document.
Applications will be assessed by the CEE Committee, whose membership covers the diverse areas of the CEE’s interests and the different member institutions. For further details and application forms visit the CEE's grants and funding page here, for direct queries e-mail cee@ucl.ac.uk.
PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and academic or research staff are all eligible to apply. PhD students should submit their application through their supervisor, and it is important that the application shows how the funding will add value to the PhD project. Applicants should clearly state the ecological/evolutionary question the study will address and should indicate how they intend to follow up the research with an application for larger-scale funding. Successful applicants will be expected to report progress to the CEE Steering Committee by an annual report and a short, post-project seminar to the CEE community.
The deadline for this round is Friday 3 February 2012, 5PM. Awards will be announced in late February.
Assessment criteria
The members of the CEE Steering Committee will assess grant proposals according to the following criteria:
- Quality of science
- Output (clearly defined, time-limited, achievable)
- Collaborative aspect (novel collaboration or new direction in existing collaboration)
- Fit to scheme (CEE remit, lack of alternative funding sources)
- Costs acceptable and reasonable
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The talk will take place on Wednesday 7th December at 6pm in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, UCL, WC1E 6BT.
A flyer for the event can be downloaded from our website.
Matt Ridley's website can be found here: http://www.mattridley.net/
We look forward to seeing you there.
The LERN Committee
London Evolutionary Research Network (LERN)
http://www.londonevolution.net
http://twitter.com/londonevolution
http://facebook.com/londonevolution
http://vimeo.com/londonevolution
Arrive early to avoid disappointment!
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What?
Collections Rescue and Recovery (CoRR) at the NHM.
When?
Thursday 28th July 2011, 2.30pm-4.00pm
Where?
Flett Lecture Theatre, NHM, South Kensington
Who?
Speaker: Chris Collins, Head of Conservation and Clare Valentine, Head of Zoology Collections, NHM.
Synopsis:
The Natural History Museum, London reviewed its Business Continuity Management procedures in 2009 and as part of that exercise each science individual department overhauled and standardised their Collections Salvage Plans.
Using this standard template the NHM now has a unified collection’s rescue and recovery plan (CoRR). This joined-up approach allows for shared salvage materials and equipment. The NHM is still developing these plans and aims to develop them so that they work either at the departmental or building level where departments have collections in juxtaposition. The plan also includes disaster planning for the specimens in the galleries and the molecular collections.
The group has undertaken practical training at departmental and cross museum level as well as providing training for external groups in recovery of natural history materials
The aim is to set the standard for best practice and define a common approach.
This talk will outline the groups current achievements and share some of the insights we have gained from undertaking these projects, which may provide a useful focus for other institutions.
Who should come?
The seminar is open to all NHM staff but it is suggested that the following staff will find the seminar most useful.
Science Group: All senior departmental managers & collection management staff.
Public Engagement Group: Any staff who work with and use collections or manage staff who work with collections.
Directorate and Science Directorate Staff
Risk & Assurance Staff
We also welcome colleagues from other institutions who would find the seminar of interest. There is no booking fee and only large parties need to notify the organiser for catering purposes.
Tea and coffee will be available in the Flett lobby after the talk.
Suggestions for seminar speakers are always most welcome. Please contact the organiser Clare Valentine (c.valentine@nhm.ac.uk)
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Hainan Gibbon Copyright Jessica Bryant 2011
The plight of the great apes is well known, but did you know that the gibbon is the most endangered ape of all? All 16 species of gibbon are threatened, including the Hainan black-crested gibbon, which is now thought to number less than 25 in the wild.
There are five types of ape; four of which are considered ‘great’ while the gibbon is categorized as ‘the lesser ape’ a distinction that has caused it to be overlooked in many fundraising and campaigning initiatives.
At a recent event at UCL, colleagues and members of the public attended an evening of interesting and lively discussion on these wonderful and appealing – and sadly hugely threatened – primates. What is it like to search for and study an animal on the brink of extinction? How do conservation organisations go about choosing what to save? What is life like trekking through jungles and swamps looking for an animal that only exists in double figures? If you find it, how would you try and protect it? What are the challenges in communicating conservation messages when it comes to endangered species?
The enthusiastic panel included extinction expert Sam Turvey (Zoological Society of London), Helen Thirlway (Director at International Primate Protection League, UK), gibbonologist Helen Chatterjee (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment), and conservation ecologist Jessica Bryant (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment and Zoological Society of London).
Organised by Dr Helen Chatterjee, UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment and the Grant Museum of Zoology.
For further information contact: h.chatterjee@ucl.ac.uk and visit: www.savethegibbon.org
Alternatively, why not adopt a gibbon today by visiting www.adoptagibbon.com
Please also read an exciting Gibbon blog at: http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/category/zoology/
Supported by the UCL Public Engagement Unit under the Beacons for Public Engagement programme - funded by the UK funding councils, Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust.
The Grant Museum is reviewed as one of the very best things to do in London on TripAdvisor, but we haven't had many of our visitors giving reviews since we reopened, so if you've been recently we'd really appreciate you giving a review. It would be great to see the Grant climbing back up the TripAdvisor charts:
Don't forget you can find us on Facebook ( <http://www.facebook.com/pages/UCL-Museums-and-Collections/352538109391>
http://www.facebook.com/pages/UCL-Museums-and-Collections/352538109391)
and Twitter (@uclmuseums).
If you'd like a monthly e-newsletter with current news and upcoming events from UCL Museums (the Grant and Petrie Museums, UCL Art Collections, plus Archaeology, Geology, Science and Ethnography), you can sign up here:
<https://www.mailinglists.ucl.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/museums>
https://www.mailinglists.ucl.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/museums
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