HIMB Pauley Program June 2013

This June, Zac Forsman, Ingrid Knapp, and Rob Toonen will host an immersive and innovative workshop at the Hawaii Institute for Marine Biology

Advancing tools for biodiversity studies: Genomics and bioinformatics of cnidarians with a focus on corals

Should be a great time. The announcement email is pasted below:

Dear Coral-List,

We are currently accepting applications for graduate students,
postdocs, and researchers to attend the 29th Annual Edwin W. Pauley
Summer Program entitled: “Advancing tools for biodiversity studies:
Genomics and bioinformatics of cnidarians with a focus on corals”, at
the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, from June 3 to July 12th. The
goal of the program is to foster research and collaboration with
leading researchers in the field of cnidarian biodiversity, evolution,
genomics, and bioinformatics (see below for additional information).

Selected program participants will be provided with airfare, food,
shared lodging in the HIMB dorms, and some modest research supplies
for the duration of the 6 week program in exchange for a final
research paper due at the end of the program. Applicants are
encouraged to work with participating lecturers to develop their
research proposals, and any matching support (in the form of travel,
supplies, etc.) should be noted in the proposal. Each selected
participant will be expected to stay for the entire duration of the 6
week program, and each working group will be required to produce a
manuscript to complete the program. We expect that these manuscripts
will be suitable for submission to a special issue of a primary
literature research journal currently being organized, and
participants who fail to submit a final research paper will be
required to pay their own dorm fees.

To apply, please submit a 1-2 page research proposal and a CV by April
5th by email to HIMBpauley2013@gmail.com. Applicants will be selected
based on the following criteria 1) feasibility of research project, 2)
fit of the research project to the program goals, 3) collaborative
potential with potential invited lecturers (see below), and 4)
potential benefit of program participation to the
student/postdoc/researcher.

HIMB is a unique modern research facility with genomic capabilities
located on an island surrounded by a living coral reef in the middle
of Kaneohe Bay, Oahu; for additional information about facilities and
research capacity, please see: http://www.hawaii.edu/himb/

With much Aloha,

Zac H. Forsman, Ingrid S.S. Knapp, Robert J. Toonen
Program Summary

Recent molecular studies have revealed surprising
genetic relationships of many species, challenging our traditional
understanding of taxonomy, species identity and evolutionary
relationships among these organisms. Until very recently, molecular
studies in corals have been limited to a handful of genetic markers
that are typically limited to a specific group and not broadly useful.
DNA sequencing technology has progressed at an extraordinary pace in
the last decade. New genomic approaches provide sequence data for a
significant portion of entire genomes for similar cost and effort to
sequencing a few molecular markers using traditional methods only a
few years ago. These recent major advances in sequencing technology,
genomics, and bioinformatics are now available at HIMB, which is the
only place on the planet with such resources surrounded by a living
coral reef. This unique setting presents an unprecedented opportunity
to bring these powerful new tools to bear on this long-standing
question, and a summer course is ideally suited to provide major
breakthroughs for classical problems in cnidarian biology such as:
understanding species boundaries, mapping biodiversity, deep taxonomy,
molecular evolution, and the ecology and evolution of symbiosis.

The 29th Annual Edwin W. Pauley Summer Program will bring together the
leading researchers and students from around the world with the common
goal of advancing this field of study.

Objectives:

Overview of new genomic approaches, tools, and recent discoveries.
Application of these new tools to classic problems such as determining
species boundaries, rapid species identification (barcoding), deep
taxonomy, and symbiosis ecology and evolution.
Providing educational and collaborative opportunities to early and
late-stage students with the world’s leading researchers in this
field.
Publication of research findings in a special issue of a leading
peer-reviewed journal.

Invited lecturers (in no particular order and not yet confirmed):
Allen Chen
Research Fellow, Coral Reef Group, Biodiversity Research Center,
Professor, Taiwan International Graduate Program-Biodiversity,
Academia Sinica, Taipei, TAIWAN

Francesca Benzoni
Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, ITALY

Jean-François Flot
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Biological
Physics and Evolutionary Dynamics Bunsenstraße 10, 37073 Göttingen,
Germany

Danwei Huang
Marine Invertebrate Phylogenetics lab, Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, University of California San Diego

Marcelo Kitahara
Centro de Biologia Marinha, Universidade de São Paulo, Sao Sebastiao,
SP – Brasil

Catherine McFadden
Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor of Biology, Harvey Mudd College,
Claremont California

David J Miller
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Pharmacy
and Molecular Sciences, James Cook University,Townsville,Australia

James Davis Reimer
Rising Star Program Trans-disciplinary Organization for Subtropical
Island Studies (TRO-SIS) University of the Ryukyus Senbaru, Nishihara,
OkinawaJAPAN

Buki Rinkevich
Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institution/National
Institute of Oceanography, Haifa, Israel

Frederic Sinniger Harii
Submarine Resource Research Project, Environmental Impact Assessment
Research Group Deep-Sea Ecosystem Research Team Global Oceanographic
Data Center (GODAC)
Japan Agency for Marine Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) Nago City Okinawa JAPAN

Karen Miller
University of Tasmania, Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies,
Hobart Tasmania, Australia

Juan Sanchez
Director – Laboratorio de Biologia Molecular Marina (BIOMMAR)
Universidad de los Andes

University of Hawaii: Zac Forsman, Robert Toonen, Mahdi Belcaid, Eric
Franklin, Bob Thomson, Ruth Gates, Steve Karl, Dave Carlon