ZOOLOGY 2022 – Keynotes

Assistant Professor Emília Santos

Dr. Emília Santos is at the head of the Morphological Evolution Group based at the Zoology Department, University of Cambridge. She is interested in exploring the proximate mechanisms and ultimate causes underlying the evolution of forms. In particular, she uses genetic, developmental, and ecological approaches to address why and how cichlid fish adaptive morphologies diversify.

www.morphoevolution.com

Professor Dario Riccardo Valenzano

Dr. Dario Riccardo Valenzano is Professor at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (Germany) and Senior Researcher at the Leibniz Institute on Aging (Fritz-Lippman Institute). His group investigates the evolutionary genetic basis of vertebrate lifespan and aging using the African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) as model system. In particular, they study how species in nature evolved different life-history strategies using a combination of experimental and analytical approaches which include genetic mapping, comparative genomics, population genetics, fish transgenesis, and computer simulations.

https://valenzano-lab.github.io/labsite/

Professor Dr. Christian R Voolstra

Dr. Voolstra’s research area is ecological genomics with a focus on acclimation and adaptation of marine invertebrates. In particular, Dr. Voolstra studies coral metaorganism function combining ecological, environmental, microbial, and molecular approaches. Corals are metaorganisms composed of the coral host, intracellular photosynthetic dinoflagellate symbionts, and associated microbiota. Dr. Voolstra’s most recent research has particularly advanced knowledge of how the bacterial microbiome contributes to coral animal host acclimation and adaptation, and the delineation of standardized analytical methods and approaches to increase comparability and meta analysis of experimental data.

http://biologie.uni-konstanz.de/voolstra

Scientific board

Ellen Decaestecker, Gilles Lepoint, Frédéric Silvestre, Stéphane Roberty, Isabelle Schon, Liesbet Temmerman, Sam Van Wassenbergh, Joost Andre M Raeymaekers, Bram Vanschoenwinkel, Caroline Nieberding, Bruno Frédérich, Jérôme Delroisse, Dominique Adriaens, Maarten Vanhove, Dries Bonte, Robby Stoks, Astrid Groot, Jan Kammenga, Jean-François Flot, Patrick Mardulyn, Lien Reyserhove, Evie Vereecke, Hannes Svardal, Hugo Gante, Tom Pinceel, Thomas Luypaert, Philippe Helsen, Sofie Claerhout, Karen Bisschop and Marianna Pinzone.