Workshop on Understanding Species Diversity on Earth - Unifying Field, Museum and Laboratory Scientists in Global Biodiversity Study, Washington, DC, November 2005

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Field-oriented, museum-oriented, and laboratory-oriented researchers often approach studies of species diversity, whether microbial or macrobial, in isolation of each other. Yet, the perspectives, skills, and strengths of all three research communities are needed to achieve a full understanding of life on Earth. Representatives of research and biodiversity informatics communities in the U.S. and in Germany will meet at AAAS headquarters in Washington, DC, in November 2005 around the theme of global species diversity: to complete the inventory of species on Planet Earth; to chronicle the history of all life on Earth; and to train a new generation of students equipped and inspired to confront the Biodiversity Crisis. This will be the second in a projected series of conferences jointly sponsored by the German Science Foundation (the DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the National Science Foundation, with participation from the AAAS, the first held in 2004 on the theme of Global Climate Change, and with the long term goal of encouraging greater collaborative research and training between the two countries. A U.S. delegation of 35 or so scientists, from fields of systematics, phylogenetics, genomics, and biodiversity informatics, nearly half of whom are women and/or minority scientists, will assemble in November with a counterpart delegation of German scientists drawn from the university, research institute, and natural history museum communities. General topics in species discovery and documentation, along with recent advances in genomics and phylo-informatics, will form the discussion themes. Electronic posters and discussion reports will be posted on a conference web site hosted by the grantee institution, the University of Florida.