THE MAJOR TRANSITIONS IN EVOLUTION
Context, Causes, Consequences.

Advanced PhD Course.

Ongoing right now. Summer Semester 2017.

A cooperation between IST Austria and the Vienna Natural History Museum.

Course Academic Credits: 3 ECTS

Content: Includes lectures, discussions and museum tours. Advanced PhD course, but postdocs welcome as well.
Dates: May 3th – June 21st. Weekly on Wednesdays 16:45 -20:00.
Location: Natural History Museum Vienna.
Registration: Details at IST course website

Target audience: PhD course for biologists in some of the following areas: evolution, ecology, systematics/phylogenetics, organismic biology or other fields related to evolution. The course is to be theoretical (lectures) and practical (assignments, paper discussions).

Course structure

Six lectures (2 hrs each)
Six practical sessions (1 hr each) for presentations. These are aimed for students to present published works that deal with an study cases. Between 3 and 4 presentations per session of 15-20 min.
Tours in the Museum of Natural History Vienna (combined with the lectures/practicals).
Lectured by: Harold P. de Vladar. Guest lecturers: Nick Barton, Tecumseh Fitch, William Martin and Eörs Szathmáry.

Further details at the course webpage at IST Austria (needs update, coming soon).

Bibliography

Maynard Smith, J and Szathmáry, E (1995) The Major Evolutionary Transitions. Oxford University Press.
Burke, A.F.G (2011) Principles of Social Evolution. Oxford University Press.
Okasha, S. (2007) Evolution and the Levels of Selection. Clarendon Press.
Szathmáry, E. (2015) Toward major evolutionary transitions theory 2.0. PNAS 10104-10111, doi:10.1073/pnas.1421398112