The theme for the 11th annual University of Michigan Early Career Scientists Symposium is "Ecosystems within organisms: ecology and evolution of the microbiome."

The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan invites
nominations of outstanding scientists early in their careers to participate in an exciting
international symposium about the ecological and evolutionary processes of the microbiome. The symposium events will take place March 27 – 29, 2015, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Seven early career scientists, alongside two keynote speakers, will be selected to present their work and to participate in panel discussions. We welcome nominations of early career scientists who are studying ecosystems within organisms. Potential topics include the role of the microbiome in disease processes, micro-evolution, or development, meta-community theory in host-associated communities, multi-host multi-parasite systems, and eco-immunology. The research focus can range from bacteria to metazoans and from fitness effects on host organisms or their microbiota to the downstream effects of microbiomes on ecosystems. We are interested in scientists with diverse expertise (including anthropology, medicine, veterinary medicine, oceanography, geobiology, virology, computer science, philosophy of science).

Early career scientists are considered senior graduate students (who stand to receive their Ph.D. within one year), postdoctoral researchers, and first- or second-year faculty. A colleague or advisor must provide the nomination.

The nomination consists of a brief letter of recommendation addressing the nominee’s scientific promise and ability to give a compelling talk, the nominee’s curriculum vitae, and a brief abstract of the proposed presentation (< 200 words, written by the nominee). Nominations may be sent electronically (in one file, please) to eeb-ecss-nomination@umich.edu using the nominee’s name as the subject line (last name first). Read more on the ECSS 2015 website. 

Review of nominations will begin December 15, 2014.

Selected participants will be contacted by January 6, 2015, and will have all expenses covered (registration, travel and accommodation). An official announcement of the slate of speakers will be issued soon thereafter.

For more information, contact Cindy Carl at cacarl@umich.edu.

The 2015 Early Career Scientists Symposium scientific committee includes:
Tim James, EEB assistant professor, assistant curator of fungi, University Herbarium (committee chair)
Chelsea Wood, EEB postdoctoral fellow
Kevin Theis, EEB research scientist 
Marian Schmidt, EEB Ph.D. student
Thomas Jenkinson, EEB Ph.D. student
Cindy Carl, EEB senior secretary and event coordinator

ECSS 2015 website