An international conference

Models in Population Dynamics, Ecology, and Evolution (MPDEE’24)

University of Leicester (UK), April 15-19, 2024

Organisers: Andrew Morozov, Sergei Petrovskii

The meeting will consider applications of mathematical modelling to explore processes and mechanisms in various biological systems ranging from a cell to the human society. A special focus will be on the interplay between ecology and evolution across time and space, in particular under the effect of climate change. MPDEE’24 is also expected to explore similarities between modelling techniques traditionally applied in ecology and evolution and those used in other life sciences with the purpose to enhance interdisciplinary approaches and to stimulate further advances in population dynamics, ecology and evolution. The meeting will be an open forum for interaction between theoreticians and empirical biologists with the main goal of enhancing communication between the two groups to better link theories with empirical realities.

International Scientific Advisory Committee (in alphabetic order)

Bernd Blasius (Oldenburg, Germany)

Carlos Braumann (Evora, Portugal)

Christina Cobbold (Glasgow, UK)

Don DeAngelis (Miami, USA)

Jose Fontanari (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Frank Hilker (Osnabrueck, Germany)

Natalia Petrovskaya (Birmingham, UK)

Nico Stollenwerk (Bilbao, Spain)

Ezio Venturino (Turin, Italy)

Honorary Speaker

Alan Hastings (UC Davis, USA)

Confirmed plenary speakers (in alphabetic order)

Maira Aguiar (Bilbao, Spain)

Malay Banerjee (IIT Kanpur, India)

Michael Bonsall (Oxford, UK)

Ivana Gudelj (Exeter, UK)

Valerio Lucarini (Reading/Leicester, UK)

Hans Metz (Leiden, The Netherlands)

Jean-Christophe Poggiale (Marseille, France)

Daniel Rothman (MIT, Cambridge MA, USA)

Davide Valenti (Palermo, Italy)

Sebastian Wieczorek (Cork, Ireland)

Special Invited Talk

Ezio Venturino (Turin, Italy)

Conference outline

The scope of the conference is outlined by (although not necessarily restricted to) the following topics:

* population dynamics and ecological complexity

* animal movement and dispersal

* biological invasions and spread of epidemics

* collective dynamics and ecological pattern formation

* uncertainty and predictability in ecology

* climate, environment and regime shifts

* ecosystem management and agroecology

* models in behavioral ecology

* epidemiology and eco-epidemiology

* evolutionary population ecology

* evolution of culture and human behavior, social dynamics

* evolutionary game theory

The MPDEE-24 program will consist of plenary talks, keynote talks, mini-symposiums, contributed talks (20 minutes) and a poster session. The presentations are expected to be mostly grouped around the above subject areas. However, we will be ready and willing to consider any submission of a potentially high scientific merit which does not exactly fall into the above list.

A minisymposium will normally consist of four talks 25 minutes each.

Some important dates

Deadline for minisymposiums proposals submission: December 15, 2023

Notification of acceptance: December 31, 2023

A minisymposium proposal should consist of the title, a brief description of the scope and goals, and names of the speakers. The organisers should contact the suggested speakers in advance to check whether they are interested.

Deadline for abstract submission for contributed talks: February 15, 2024

Notification of acceptance: February 25, 2024

To register, please send a message to am379@le.ac.uk (Andrew Morozov) and sp237@le.ac.uk (Sergei Petrovskii) with a title and a brief abstract of your presentation (one page at most, in a camera-ready format, either pdf or Word), clearly indicating whether it is intended to be a talk or a poster. Also, in case there is more than one author, please indicate very clearly who is actually going to present the work. Please also fill in the registration form (see below) and send it to the above email addresses too.

To download the registration form please click here:   The registration form

If the above link does not work, please contact the organisers by the email addresses above.

Registration fees

The registration fee can be paid online using the secure weblink here.

Alternatively, the registration fee can be paid in cash upon arrival at the registration desk. The exact amount of the fee will depend on the number of days and the status of the participants, as below:

Full registration fee (non-student): 260 GBP

“Early Bird” registration fee (until February 15): 210 GBP

Partial registration (up to 2 days), non-student: 160 GBP

Student registration: 130 GBP (regardless of the number of days)

The registration fee includes the coffee breaks, reception, and the delegate pack (including the book of abstracts)

Accommodation information

The closest hotel is The Belmont Hotel (about 10-15 minutes by walking from the conference site). Alternatively, there is a broad variety of hotels in the city centre within walking distance from the conference site (25-30 minutes).

About the city

Leicester is one of the oldest English cities with over a thousand years of history. Modern Leicester is a lively, multi-cultural city with the population of nearly 300,000. Leicester has a huge choice of pubs, clubs, restaurants, cinemas and theatres as well as excellent shopping - from one of Europe's oldest markets to new shopping malls.

Leicester is the home to the National Space Centre. It also boasts to possess one of the largest pieces of Roman architecture in Britain (at the Jewry Wall Museum), and the largest collection of German Expressionist art in the country. One recent highlight is the burial ground & museum of King Richard III that was discovered just a decade ago.

Leicester is in the heart of England with excellent communications by road, air and rail. In particular, Leicester is less than one hour of travel by coach from East Midlands Airport, about 1.5 hours by train from London Luton and Birmingham International Airport, and within 2.5 hours by train from Heathrow and London Stansted.