2nd World Summit on Evolution: August 2009

Quito, 31 July 2009

On 2005, the First World Summit on Evolution took place in Ecuador, joining more than 150 scientists, including some of the most influential and recognized researchers in evolutionary biology. On August 2009, a new edition of the Summit will be launched to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.

GALAPAGOS, EPICENTRE OF THE SECOND WORLD SUMMIT ON EVOLUTION

The Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and its Galapagos Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS) will host the “Second World Summit on Evolution” between 22 and 26 August to commemorate the Charles Darwin bicentenary.

This Second World Summit on Evolution will take place in the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago that inspired Darwin to define the theory that revolutionized our conception of the world in relation to the origin of all species, including humans. His ideas were presented in his monumental work “On the Origin of Species”.

The Galapagos Islands, however, are not important just because of Darwin’s discoveries and observations. An impressive number of scientific studies have been developed during the years since his visit. As information increases on the flora and fauna of the islands and their ecological patterns, it is clear that the Galapagos are a living laboratory of evolution.

Evolution is the natural process responsible for the huge diversity of life in our planet and has deep implications in all aspects of humanity. Studies related to evolutionary biology have been key factors for the development of novel source materials for the industry, for the prevention and control of infectious diseases, and for the design of new conservation strategies.

Objectives:

• To join experts from different branches of evolutionary biology to discuss on the impacts of recent discoveries, in order to integrate them inside the basic concepts of evolution.
• To remind to the scientific community on the importance of the Galapagos Islands and the discoveries produced thanks to their particular natural resources. This summit will present the Island as a living and dynamic laboratory.
• To promote Ecuador, its researchers, and its academic institutions working to develop scientific knowledge.

Subjects chosen for discussion:

• Human Evolution: origins, development, and natural selection in humans. New perspectives to the famous rhetoric questions: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
• Evolution and infectious diseases: Studies on the origin and evolution of diseases such as AIDS. Perspective on the importance of evolutionary studies to effectively fight against disease that afflict our society.
• Origin of life: Studies on how did the first living cells originate and how the first living beings organized and diversified; how did unicellular life forms evolve into more complex organisms.
• Evolution of plants and animals: Research on the origin of current multicellular organisms, which are the main evolutionary mechanism that have shaped the biodiversity of our planet and how they work.

This Summit will gather more than 150 invited scientists, including world-famous professors and their postgraduate students. Speakers come from some of the most important universities and research centres in USA, United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Spain, Mexico, and Argentina, and will be joined by five Ecuadorian speakers, professors of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.

Among the international invited-speakers are: Antonio Lazcano, Mexican scientist with numerous publications in top-peer review journals such as Science and Nature, author of best-seller books including The Prodigious Bacteria, The Spark of Life, and The Origin of Life, the last one sold more than 650.000 copies; Jeffrey Bada, Director of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in Exobiology; Ada Yonath, pioneer in studies of cellular structures (especially the ribosome) and winner of the 2006 Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the 2008 L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science; Roberto Kolter, professor at the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics of the Harvard Medical School and President of the American Society for Microbiology (APPENDIX, BRIEF PROFILES OF ALL SPEAKERS).

The First World Summit on Evolution took place between 09 and 12 June 2005 at the Galapagos Islands, it was widely-publicised by the most important national and international media.

SECOND WORLD SUMMIT ON EVOLUTION
Dates: From 22 to 26 August 2009
Place: Campus GAIAS USFQ and Conventions Centre of the Puerto Baquerizo Moreno Municipality, Isla San Cristobal, province of Galápagos, Ecuador
For more information, please visit our website: www.usfq.edu.ec/summit

For Media Coordination please contact:

• Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia dcisneros@usfq.edu.ec, zoologia@cisneros-heredia.org, (593) 9 166 1945,
• Sara Flores (593) 2 2971936, (593) 95614390 sflores@usfq.edu.ec, or
• Alexandra Polanco apolanco@usfq.edu.ec, (593) 2 2971815.