An international conference

Models in Population Dynamics, Ecology, and Evolution (MPDEE’18)

University of Leicester (UK), April 9-13, 2018

Organisers: Andrew Morozov, Sergei Petrovskii

News & updates

MPDEE’18 timetable is available here

MPDEE’18 book of abstracts is available here

The complete MPDEE’18 Handbook (everything in one file) is available here

Map of campus with marked registration venues is available here

Map of campus with marked location of the conference site & places for lunch here

Map of the city with suggestions for dinner is available here

Honorary Speakers

Michel Loreau (Moulis, France)

Andrew Liebhold (Morgantown, USDA Forest Service, USA)

Confirmed plenary speakers (in alphabetic order)

Elaine Crooks (Swansea, UK)

Donald DeAngelis (Miami, USA)

Sergey Gavrilets (Knoxville, USA)

Mats Gyllenberg (Helsinki, Finland)

Rainer Klages (London, UK)

John McNamara (Bristol, UK)

Hans Metz (Leiden, The Netherlands)

Ran Nathan (Jerusalem, Israel)

Rachel Norman (Stirling, UK)

Andre de Roos (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

International Scientific Advisory Committee (in alphabetic order)

Edward Codling (Colchester, UK)

Alexander Gorban (Leicester, UK)

Eva Kisdi (Helsinki, Finland)

Roberto Kraenkel (Sao Paolo, Brazil)

Horst Malchow (Osnabrueck, Germany)

Natalia Petrovskaya (Birmingham, UK)

Jean-Christophe Poggiale (Marseille, France)

Jonathan Sherratt (Edinburgh, UK)

Ezio Venturino (Turin, Italy)

Conference outline

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. MPDEE’18 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.

This conference appears as a result of merging of two conference series, namely Models in Population Dynamics and Ecology (MPDE) and Modelling Biological Evolution (MBE). For details of the recent meetings in both series please check http://mpde16.mio.univ-amu.fr/ and http://www.math.le.ac.uk/people/ag153/homepage/MBE_2017/MBE_2017_1.htm

MPDEE-18 is included into the program of the Year of Mathematical Biology

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

* ecological time series and regime shifts

* agroecology and food security

* models in behavioral ecology

* evolutionary population ecology

* population and quantitative genetics

* evolution of culture and human behavior

* evolutionary game theory

The MPDEE-18 program will consist of plenary 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 minisymposia proposals submission: December 20, 2017

Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2018

Deadline for abstract submission: February 10, 2018

Notification of acceptance: February 20, 2018

Registration is now closed

Final program becomes available: March 15, 2018

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 addresses too.

To download the registration form please click here

Registration fees

For technical reasons, we are not able to handle bank transfers or card payments. The registration fee has to be paid in cash upon arrival at the registration desk. The exact amount of the fee will depends on the number of days and the status of the participants:

Full registration fee (non-student): 180 GBP

Partial registration (up to 2 days), non-student: 120 GBP

Student registration: 70 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

For a list of suitable hotels (with convenient location close to the conference site), click here

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 of King Richard III that was discovered just a few of years 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, 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.

About the University of Leicester: http://www.le.ac.uk/external/