Conference: 2025 Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology Meeting

For the last decade the Pan American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (PASEDB) has held an international biennial meeting. Each of the previous meetings attracted a large community of scientists working in the field of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EvoDevo) indicating the critical need in the community for this scientific and educational exchange. EvoDevo is a multidisciplinary field that sits at the intersection of Evolutionary Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics, and Physiology. The focus of this sixth meeting will be to highlight recent breakthroughs in comparing similarities and differences in the embryonic development of a diverse set of animals ranging from jellyfish to humans. The PASEDB meeting also provides an invaluable platform for young faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate and undergraduate students to present their results, to learn about the latest research and technological advances in evolutionary developmental biology, and to expand their professional network. This award will support early career scientists (junior faculty members, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students) from the United States to attend the meeting. In short, this award will help provide a forum that is vital for the continued growth of the EvoDevo community. A community that is essential to the progress and innovation in several fields, including those directly relevant to human development and health. The NSF funding for the PASEDB meeting provides the society with the ability to bring early career scientists (assistant professors), postdoctoral associates as well as graduate and undergraduate students from the United States to the biennial meeting. Scientific sessions include topics such as genomic basis of developmental evolution, the developmental origins of novelty, emerging research organisms, developmental biology in a changing world, cell biology in EvoDevo, neuro EvoDevo, new tools in EvoDevo, development and evolution, education in EvoDevo, external influences on development, genetic basis of trait variation, and comparative omics. The organizing committee has planned for a venue to conduct lively poster sessions that offer important opportunities for early career scientists to share their work in progress. Importantly, many students are attending their first conference or presenting preliminary results for the first time in this welcoming atmosphere and inspiring setting. Attendees will also be able to participate in workshops designed to address professional development, and successful strategies in academia such as “mentoring students and postdocs”, successful delivery of chalk talks and teaching demos during job interviews” and “how to succeed in teaching in your first year”. These are critical topics for increasing recruitment and retention of trainees and new faculty in the field. Finally, the meeting will feature an all-postdoc symposium to showcase future PIs in the field and offer an early career award for new EvoDevo faculty. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.