The European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) was founded in 1987 in Basel (Switzerland) with around 450 evolutionary biologists attending the inaugural congress. It is an academic society that brings together more than 1500 evolutionary biologists from across Europe and beyond. The founding of the society was closely linked with the launch of the society's journal, the ''

Journal of Evolutionary Biology The ''Journal of Evolutionary Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published monthly covering the field of evolutionary biology. It is owned by the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. The founding editor-in-chief was Stephen C ...

'' with the first issue appearing in 1988. ESEB aims at supporting the study of evolution. Beside publishing the journal and co-publishing ''Evolution Letters'', the society organises a biannual congress and supports other events to promote advances in evolutionary biology. ESEB also supports activities to promote a scientific view of evolution in research and education. Its objectives are to "Support the study of organic

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and the integration of those scientific fields that are concerned with evolution:

molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bio ...

and

microbial A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

evolution,

behaviour Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as wel ...

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar work ...

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

, life histories, development,

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

systematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic t ...

and morphology." ESEB supports young researchers through sponsoring the annual EMPSEB (European Meeting of PhD Students in Evolutionary Biology) research conference for Ph.D. students.

Presidents

Source
ESEB
* 1987–1989 :

Arthur Cain Arthur James Cain FRS (25 July 1921 – 20 August 1999) was a British evolutionary biologist and ecologist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989. Life Arthur James Cain was awarded an open scholarship in 1939 ( Demyship) to Ma ...

(first president) * 1989–1991 :

Bengt Bengtsson Colonel Bengt Folke Bengtsson (30 September 1897 – 10 October 1977) was a Swedish Army officer. He served in the Air Defense Artillery Branch and finished his military career as Inspector of the Air Defence from 1953 to 1957. Early life ...

* 1991–1993 :

John Maynard Smith John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics un ...

* 1993–1995 :

John L. Harper John Lander Harper (27 May 1925 – 22 March 2009) was a British biologist, specializing in ecology and plant population biology. Life He was born in 1925 and educated at Lawrence Sheriff School, Rugby. He obtained his degree in Botany in (1 ...

* 1995–1997 : Wim Scharloo * 1997–1999 : Stephen Stearns * 1999–2001 : Godfrey Hewitt * 2001–2003 :

Deborah Charlesworth Deborah Charlesworth (née Maltby; born 1943) is a population geneticist from the UK, notable for her important discoveries in population genetics and evolutionary biology. Her most notable research is in understanding the evolution of recom ...

* 2003–2005 : Rolf Hoekstra * 2005–2007 : Paul Brakefield * 2007–2009 : Isabelle Olivieri * 2009–2011 : Siv Andersson * 2011–2013 :

Brian Charlesworth Brian Charlesworth (born 29 April 1945) is a British evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, and editor of ''Biology Letters''. Since 1997, he has been Royal Society Research Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IE ...

* 2013–2015 :

Roger Butlin Roger Kenneth Butlin is a British evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Sheffield. He is known for his work on speciation. He served as Editor of '' Heredity'' from 2009 to 2012, and President of the Society for the Study of ...

* 2015–2017 : Laurent Keller * 2017–2019 : Nina Wedell * 2019–2021 : Ophélie Ronce

References

External links

ESEB website
{{Portal bar, Evolutionary biology, Europe Biology in Europe Evolutionary biology societies International scientific organizations based in Europe

Presidents

Further reading

References

External links