UPDATE 9/16:

• An email information packet has been sent to all applicants (not faculty participants).  If you did not receive this email info packet, please email Matt Haber.
• Some of the events require an advanced headcount and/or planned travel arrangements, so please email Matt as soon as possible.

UPDATE: The latest (9/16) schedule can be downloaded here:  FDISH Schedule (PDF, 316 kb)

Here are some important times that will help in planning your schedule:

Wednesday, September 22: Informal get-together at 6:00 p.m. (The Pig and Whistle, 2801 Geary Blvd., 415.885.4779)
Thursday, September 23:  Registration from 8:30-9:15.  Light breakfast available.
Saturday, September 25: Banquet at 7:00 p.m.  ( A. Sabella's, 2766 Taylor St., 415.771.6775)
Sunday, September 26: Final session ends at 1:00 p.m.

Speakers and talks:

Kim Sterelny, ANU/VUW

• "Human Cognitive Evolution, Cultural Evolution, and Externalising the Mind"
• "Niche Construction and its Significance"

Jay Odenbaugh, Lewis and Clark University

• "Mathematical Models in Ecology"
• "Method in Philosophy of Biology: Paying Attention to Other Special Sciences"

Edna Suárez Diaz, UNAM

• "Conducting Interdisciplinary Research"
• "Experimental Techniques in Molecular Evolution"

Jason Robert, Arizona State University

• "Stem cells: From bench to clinic via the Island of Dr. Moreau"
  • Moving basic research from the laboratory to the bedside is no easy task. Even where results with animal models appear especially promising, it is notoriously difficult to make appropriate generalizations across species boundaries and from the bench to the clinic. In the context of stem cell research, some biologists promote the creation of interspecific chimaeric model systems to facilitate safe inferences in clinical science. Such creatures are both scientifically and ethically contentious, and I demonstrate that assessing their possible value requires not just ethical analysis but also critical tools from the history and philosophy of experimental science.

• "Developmental evolutionary psychobiology"
  • With the rise of evolutionary psychology, some developmental psychobiologists have begun to underscore the importance of taking development seriously. That is, the argument goes, evolutionary psychological explanations of behaviors are incomplete and even misleading without a correlative understanding of the actual development of behaviors at a variety of levels of biological organization. The results of these interventions, generally promissory at this stage, form the integrative project of evolutionary developmental psychology. I offer a critical assessment of this integrative project; but rather than emphasizing either development or evolution as such, I begin with cues from another ongoing attempt to integrate scientific tools, perspectives, and knowledge bases - evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). This study yields new insights for the study of behavioral development and evolution and how to conceptualize behavior, and also reveals a new perspective on evo-devo.