Call for presentations at the Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference

SEEC is a conference run by students for students is being hosted at the University of Central Florida (UCF) on March 1st – 3rd of 2013.  SEEC offers a friendly atmosphere for undergraduate, graduate, and post doctoral students from around the  southeast to engage one another and solicit helpful critiques of their research. SEEC also gives students that are not presenting the opportunity to learn from others about giving a research presentation or poster.

While anyone with an interest in ecology or evolution is welcome to attend SEEC, those planning on presenting posters or talks have an abstract submission deadline of February 1, 2013 at 5pm EST, that can be completed at the registration page.

Early registration fees are only $35, and can be paid with the submission of your 200 word abstract.  Poster presenters should plan to use a 36″x48″ landscape format poster, and oral presenters should create a 12 minute PowerPoint presentation on a Windows compatible USB storage device.  Cash prizes will be awarded in four categories, undergraduate poster, undergraduate oral presentation, graduate poster, and graduate oral presentation.

In addition to presentations and speakers, SEEC is offering a number of fun and friendly networking opportunities during the three day event.   On Friday night, a Biology trivia session at a local restaurant will be offered that will pit universities against each other in a race for prizes. Saturday night, following presentations, we will head out to a restaurant and bar on the beautiful UCF campus where we will hold a banquet dinner and silent auction.

Additionally, over lunch on Saturday, one of our post doctoral fellows, Joshua Reese, will be giving an R statistical seminar for those interested in attending. The seminar will focus on how to use R to combine phylogenetic and ecological studies, more additional information is available about the R seminar. The presentation of awards will be held Sunday morning, and that afternoon we will have first come first serve excursion opportunities with lab staff from our very own Biology department, check out the list of available excursions.

Our plenary speaker on Sunday morning will be Dr. Keith Hobson, a research scientist at the University of Saskatchewan and former editor of Waterbirds. Dr. Hobson’s research focuses on the conservation of arboreal systems and how stable isotopes can be used to understand migratory patterns in various taxa.

Lodging is being provided by the La Quinta Inn and Suites within the UCF Research Park.  SEEC has negotiated a special rate of $99/night based on 4 person occupancy that also includes breakfast.  This discount expires on February 8, 2013, so be sure to book your room soon.  The booking code can be found at the travel information page.