The SeeDS (Symposium of Ecology and Evolution Doctoral Students) is an engaging and stress-free meeting organized by the graduate students for the participating graduate students in all disciplines of ecology and evolutionary biology to discuss their current research, meet new colleagues from across Switzerland and abroad and have the opportunity to expand their research network.

It is our pleasure at the Institute of Biology at university of Neuchatel to host the Seed 2018 meeting this November. This year’s meeting will take place at the Museum of Natural History in Neuchatel. The program consists of selected number of presentations from PhD students, poster presentation sessions, talks by three invited speakers including lunch and social dinner. We will conclude the meeting with an organized guided-tour of the Climate Change Exhibition "Poles, feu la glaçe" (see the teaser here) at the Natural History Museum and a private social apero and dinner held at the Café du Cerf.

This year, we have selected our invited speakers from both academia and industry to provide the students with a broad scientific presentation on ecology and evolution as well as talks focusing on the broad spectrum of challenges faced by PhD graduates to take on a career in both academia and industry.

Invited guest speaker:

Dr. Peter Linder  (UZH): is a world-renowned plant taxonomist from the institute of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany at University of Zurich. His research is focused on fascinating plant diversity. He is an expert in Cape flora of South Africa. He will give an inspiring talk titled “Some unusual hypotheses as to why evolutionary radiations take place”

Dr. Emilie Demarsy  (UNIGE): is a recently appointed senior lecturer at Department of Botany and Plant Biology at University of Geneva. She has held several academic positions at different academic institutions upon obtaining her PhD. She will talk about the challenges and her experiences as a woman in science in academia.

Dr.  Jennifer Mcclung (Conseillère de Recherche et Innovation, Grant Office UNINE):has obtained her PhD in Psychology at the University of St. Andrews (UK) and has since worked as a researcher of human behaviour at the dept. of Behavioural Ecology of UNINE. She has just been appointed Grant Manager at the Grant Office of UNINE. She will talk aboutGrant and Scholarship opportunities for PhD students in Switzerland, during and post-PhD.