This year started with a an intense month
I attended the Population Genetics Group (a.k.a. “PopGroup”) meeting at the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), where I gave a talk. I presented some results from a project on environmental associations with genetic variation at seminal fluid proteins in D. melanogaster. I received lots of interest and great feedback, one attendee even reached out by e-mail after the conference to make suggestions! I really enjoy PopGroup as a meeting, they are usually medium sized conferences (with ~320 people this year) and they are very collegial with lots of discussion. Historically it has been a very theoretical conference of population genetics, but these days there are talks on various topics broadly related to evolutionary biology, usually with some genetic component, whether it’s population genetics, quantitative genetics, or simply the use of modern genomics methods. It’s also a great place to catch up with old friends.
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| Me starting my talk at PopGroup58. Photo credit: Ginny Greenway |
The conference dinner and party were held the (Kelham Island Museum)[https://www.sheffieldmuseums.org.uk/visit-us/kelham-island-museum/], that hosts an enormous functional steam engine that they got going for us. It was quite thrilling!
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| The steam engine at the Kelham Island Museum |
After a short trip to Bangor in northern Wales to visit a friend, I was back in Sweden just in time for the biennial “Evolution in Sweden” meeting. This year it was hosted this year by the University of Linköping. Here too I gave a talk on a different project that has been the focus of my current position at Stockholm University. Using the sex-peptide network in D. melanogaster as a model of sexually antagonistic coevolution to test predictions of theory at the molecular level. This meeting is also great fun, I have been only once before, because it brings together evolutionary biologists from around Sweden to share their work. It’s lovely to get a sense for what people in the local community are working on.
Also this month my M.Sc. student, Alma Thorson, presented her thesis to the department. This is the final part of a M.Sc. research project here at Stockholm University and is a bit like a mini defence; a short presentation in front of an audience from the department, followed by questions and discussion with the examining committee. She has completed a great written thesis, gave a great talk, and fielded some very difficult questions calmly and clearly.
On top of all this I have finished and submitted various job and research funding applications, and there will be more to come in February.