SASB News


30 January 2012   News of systematics mentoring grants offered by the Society of Systematic Biologists (not the SASB) - see the jobs page.

4 November 2011  The 10th Invertebrate Biodiversity and Conservation Conference (IBCC) will be a joint meeting with The Society of Australian Systematic Biologists (SASB) and will be held at the University of Melbourne, from 4 to 7 December 2011 (www.ibcc2011.org). A General Meeting of the SASB will be held at 5:45 pm on Monday, 5 December at St Mary’s College (room to be advised). All SASB members are invited to attend, as new officers need to be elected for 2012 onwards.

22 October 2011   News of an intensive training workshop in the USA in 2012 - see the conferences page.

1 August 2011   Courtenay Smithers (1925-2011). Obituary in the June-July 2011 issue of the Entomological Society of Queensland News Bulletin.

18 March 2011  The 2nd National Postgraduate Training Workshop in Systematics will be held at the University of Adelaide from 25-30 September 2011. The workshop is designed for PhD students in the first and second years of their project, but applications will be accepted from anyone who has had less than 3 years of candidature. It is specifically designed for students undertaking projects that have a biological systematics component or are broadly relevant to systematics. Funding is available to assist students attend the workshop, but there is a maximum of 30 places – available only to students enrolled in Australian and New Zealand Universities. Deadline for expressions of interest: 6 May 2011. Email expressions of interest to michelle.guzik@adelaide.edu.au. Include your name, institution and School/Department, project title and brief 100 word description, years/months of candidature, name of primary supervisor and his/her email address.

  • Tropical invertebrate diversity: From rainforest to reef
  • Species in principle and in practice – morphological and genetic approaches to defining species boundaries
  • Assessing and countering threats to invertebrates
  • Biodiversity and biosecurity – Can one work without the other?

On Thursday 8 December 2011 there will be a separate workshop, 'Invertebrate conservation', which will involve some conference registrants but may also involve other participants, for example representatives of state and federal conservation agencies. More information on IBCC-10 on the conference website.

2 September 2010   Mark Harvey has let SASB members know that Records of the Western Australian Museum is now digitised and online back to vol 10 (1983), with earlier issues to follow. The link is http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/research/records-supplements/#records. Special Publications of the WAM are also freely available, but the RWAM Supplement series isn't, although PDFs may be purchased.

15 June 2010   Arturs Neboiss (1924-2010)

29 May 2010   The European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) is holding courses in taxonomic basics from August 2010 to January 2011. Please refer to the courses website for more information: http://www.taxonomytraining.eu/content/modern-taxonomy-course-programme-2010-2011

16 February 2010   The Society has written to the CEO of the Australian Research Council expressing its disappointment with the 'C' rankings (lowest) given to systematics journals in the 2010 ARC/ERA rankings, and especially with the 'C' ranking for Zootaxa. The correspondence is archived here.

27 November 2009   Surrey Jacobs (1946-2009) [obituary]

26 November 2009   Ross Crozier (1943-2009) [obituary]

23 November 2009   Members living in or visiting Melbourne are invited to attend the Melbourne Systematics Forum. The Forum is scheduled to meet on the first Thursday of each month March-December 2010 at 6 pm in the Discovery Centre, Lower Ground, Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens.

The Forum provides an opportunity for students, academics and others with an interest in systematic biology and related topics to discuss their research results and current ideas in an informal environment. Sessions commence with an introduction from the convenor, followed by an informal talk for about 20 minutes. Participants are encouraged to intervene and generate discussion. Meetings generally conclude after about 90 minutes, and everyone who attends a session is encouraged to actively participate. (website)

1 October 2009   Informal planning has begun for the 2011 conference in Melbourne, possibly 28 November - 2 December. It will be co-sponsored by SASB and the Invertebrate Biodiversity and Conservation group.