The European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) was founded in 1987 in Basel (Switzerland) with around 450 evolutionary biologists attending the inaugural congress. It is an academic society that brings together more than 1500 evolutionary biologists from across Europe and beyond. The founding of the society was closely linked with the launch of the society's journal, the ''
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
The ''Journal of Evolutionary Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published monthly covering the field of evolutionary biology. It is owned by the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. The founding editor-in-chief was Stephen C. S ...
'' with the first issue appearing in 1988. ESEB aims at supporting the study of evolution. Beside publishing the journal and co-publishing ''Evolution Letters'', the society organises a biannual congress and supports other events to promote advances in evolutionary biology. ESEB also supports activities to promote a scientific view of evolution in research and education.
Its objectives are to "Support the study of organic
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
and the integration of those scientific fields that are concerned with evolution:
molecular
A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioche ...
and
microbial
A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...
evolution,
behaviour
Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as wel ...
,
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
,
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
, life histories, development,
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
,
systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...
and
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
."
ESEB supports young researchers through sponsoring the annual EMPSEB (European Meeting of PhD Students in Evolutionary Biology) research conference for Ph.D. students.
Presidents
Source
ESEB* 1987–1989 :
Arthur Cain
Arthur James Cain FRS (25 July 1921 – 20 August 1999) was a British evolutionary biologist and ecologist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989.
Life
Arthur James Cain was awarded an open scholarship in 1939 (Demyship) to Mag ...
(first president)
* 1989–1991 :
Bengt Bengtsson
Colonel Bengt Folke Bengtsson (30 September 1897 – 10 October 1977) was a Swedish Army officer. He served in the Air Defense Artillery Branch and finished his military career as Inspector of the Air Defence from 1953 to 1957.
Early life
...
* 1991–1993 :
John Maynard Smith
John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics und ...
* 1993–1995 :
John L. Harper
* 1995–1997 :
Wim Scharloo
* 1997–1999 :
Stephen Stearns
* 1999–2001 :
Godfrey Hewitt
Godfrey Matthew Hewitt (10 January 1940 – 18 February 2013) was a British professor and evolutionary geneticist at the University of East Anglia who was very influential in the development of the fields of molecular ecology, phylogeography, sp ...
* 2001–2003 :
Deborah Charlesworth
Deborah Charlesworth (née Maltby; born 1943) is a population geneticist from the UK, notable for her important discoveries in population genetics and evolutionary biology. Her most notable research is in understanding the evolution of recomb ...
* 2003–2005 :
Rolf Hoekstra
* 2005–2007 :
Paul Brakefield
* 2007–2009 :
Isabelle Olivieri
Isabel is a female name of Spanish origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of '' Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew ''Elisheva''), Arising in the 12th century, it became popul ...
* 2009–2011 :
Siv Andersson
* 2011–2013 :
Brian Charlesworth
Brian Charlesworth (born 29 April 1945) is a British evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, and editor of ''Biology Letters''.
Since 1997, he has been Royal Society Research Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IE ...
* 2013–2015 :
Roger Butlin
* 2015–2017 :
Laurent Keller
* 2017–2019 :
Nina Wedell
* 2019–2021 :
Ophélie Ronce
Further reading
*
References
External links
ESEB website
{{Portal bar, Evolutionary biology, Europe
Biology in Europe
Evolutionary biology societies
International scientific organizations based in Europe