KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Jennifer has a B.Sc in Agroecology and a PhD in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems from the University of British Columbia. Her scholarly interests revolve around invasive species management, ecological restoration, and science communication, and she brings with her nearly two decades of experience providing consulting services and on-the-ground management of invasive species for all levels of government and working with Indigenous communities on creating food security plans and land healing initiatives. Jennifer is a proud Nlaka‘pamux woman of mixed ancestry whose family comes from the Lytton First Nation (though she grew up on the coast of BC).
Talk: A Tale of Two Teosintes: admixture, archaeology, and a new model of the origins of maize
Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra is an evolutionary geneticist at the University of California Davis with a background in ethnobotany and population genetics. His group works on plant evolution, using maize and its wild relatives as a model system to investigate questions from genome architecture to local adaptation and experimental evolution. Recent work from the group ranges from studying the nonequilibrium dynamics of background selection on genetic diversity, to methods to detect selection on transposable elements, to the role of gene flow in local adaptation and convergent evolution.
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Brian Cullis is a Senior Professor at the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research, Australia, and Professor of Biometry at the University of Wollongong having been appointed to this position in July 2011 after working as a biometrician for more than 30 years with NSW Department of Primary Industries. He has led numerous large-scale industry projects and has extensive experience in the management of large teams of applied statisticians working across multiple research and consulting projects on behalf of the Centre for Biometrics and Data Science for Sustainable Primary Industries, and in his previous role as Director of Biometrics in the NSW Department of Primary Industries.
His interests relate to the application of statistical approaches to the analysis of agricultural and biological data. He has co-authored more than 210 refereed papers. Much research involves the application and development of linear mixed model techniques. He is a co-developer of the ASReml and ASReml-R software systems. He has successfully supervised over 25 Masters and PhD students and has trained, developed and mentored the majority of statisticians currently supporting the grains industry within Australia.
He was the recipient of the E.A. Cornish award in 2015, an award for recognition of a member in the Australasian Region who has given long-time service to the Biometric Society and to the advancement of biometry. He is a past Co-Editor of Biometrics and past Associate Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics and is currently Co-Editor for Frontiers in Plant Science (Plant Bioinformatics) and Associate Editor of the Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge.
Talk: Conserving genetic diversity of trees and other plants without DNA data - simple but useful metrics
Sean Hoban is a Tree Conservation Biologist at The Morton Arboretum in Chicago USA. Sean also has a leading role in the IUCN Conservation Genetic Specialist Group, GEO BON, and the Coalition for Conservation Genetics. He has a PhD from University of Notre Dame, and performed a postdoc with the ConGRESS project and another postdoc at NIMBioS. He has more than 80 publications and currently focuses on developing science-based advice for ex situ collections like botanic gardens, and for bringing knowledge on adaptive capacity of populations to national and global policy. He also has interests in seed dispersal, macrogenetics, hybridization, and population size change over time. You can read more about his group at hobanlab.com.
Talk: Forest trees adaptation to climate: Building on the legacy of genecology to anticipate responses to climate and guide seed movement
Dr. Laura Leites is an associate research professor of quantitative forest ecology at Penn State University where she leads the Quantitative Forest Ecology Lab. She holds a Doctorate in Natural Resources and a Master of Science in Forest Resources from the University of Idaho, and a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy from the Universidad de la República in Uruguay. Her research program focuses on understanding adaptation to climate in forest tree species and their potential responses under a changing climate. Current studies include modeling populations responses to climate change and using these models to guide seed movement for reforestation and restoration. Leites is also an Equity Leadership Fellow in the Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity where she leads initiatives to foster greater equity and inclusion across the university.