Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, Department of Botany

20-21 April 2012
National Museum of
Natural History
and the U.S. Botanic Garden
Washington, DC

Smithsonian Botanical Symposium 2012 — Presented by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Department of Botany in collaboration with the United States Botanic Garden with support from the Cuatrecasas Family Foundation:

"Transforming 21st Century Comparative Biology using Evolutionary Trees"

Over the last 20 years great progress has been made toward assembling a phylogeny of life on Earth and our expanding knowledge of evolutionary relationships is transforming 21st century biology. This is especially true in comparative biology where phylogenetic methods and trees - usually based on molecular data which is increasingly of genomics scale - are proving effective tools to reveal new and often unexpected insights into how organisms evolve and adapt to their environments. These advances span new important questions and enable a fresh look at old questions that include: diversification, role of extinction, response to climate change, co-evolution, the influence of genetic architecture on morphological evolution, and patterns of community assembly and interaction.

The 10th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, hosted by the Department of Botany and the United States Botanic Garden, will address the question: How do we put the knowledge of evolutionary relationships to work to better describe and understand the diversification of life on Earth? The invited speakers will cover a wide range of organisms and topics to illuminate how molecular phylogenetics can be used to understand evolutionary and ecological processes.

Plate illustrating Welwitschia Hook f. from Rudolf Marloth, 1913, The Flora of South Africa, Volume 1.

Friday, April 20

Evening Events

The United States Botanic Garden

6:30 p.m. Opening Reception, The United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC.

Saturday, April 21

Morning Session

NMNH Baird Auditorium

8:30 a.m. Registration and Coffee, Evans Gallery (enter through Constitution Avenue Lobby)

9:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Invited papers

10:15 a.m. Coffee Break, Upper Level of the Museum Rotunda

12:15 p.m. Boxed Lunch, Upper Level of the Museum Rotunda

Afternoon Session

NMNH Baird Auditorium

2:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Invited papers and discussion

3:30 p.m. Coffee Break, Upper Level of the Museum Rotunda

Evening Events

NMNH Rotunda

5:45 p.m. Reception

7:00 p.m. Symposium Dinner, Museum Rotunda

Abstracts coming soon.

Sponsors