Guest talk by Valeria Marasco

(Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna)

https://valeriamarasco.blog/about/

Host: Miriam Liedvogel

Talks by Sig05 (Jonathan & Pedro)

Chair: Maryam

Evolution through opportunities: intraspecific diversity in waders

Intraspecific variation is an important part of biodiversity and plays a key role for the adaptive responses to environmental change. In many species, a considerable part of intraspecific variation is captured by divergent phenotypes with strong differences in life history strategies including sexes or morphs. Similar to adaptive radiations that lead to speciation, these discrete life-history strategies can evolve because of evolutionary opportunities and produce imperfect adaptations that show the evolutionary process in action. I will illustrate these points with examples of our own research on the evolution of diverse female and male reproductive strategies through social opportunities in waders, a group of birds with exceptional diversity in mating and care behaviour. I will then show how a chromosomal re-arrangement led to a genomic opportunity that culminated in evolution of a supergene in ruffs Calidris pugnax, an ecological model for sexual selection. This supergene encodes three distinct male reproductive morphs that employ different mating tactics and hence provides a unique opportunity to characterize the genetic regulation of variation in reproductive physiology and behaviour. I will demonstrate that the supergene variants have very different fitness consequences for males and females. Finally, I will demonstrate how avicultural methods developed during our research are applied for conservation management (head starting and re-wilding) of threatened wader populations. These management methods provide very effective and sustainable alternatives to more contentious management actions such as lethal predator control, and can help to boost populations in peril.  

Behavioural Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Seewiesen

Host: Miriam Liedvogel

Location: BIS hall at the UOL Campus Haarentor

TBD

Talks by Sig06 (Alisha) & TBD

Chair: TBD

PICTURE A SCIENTIST 

An evening on gender bias in science 

Who actually does science? And why is it still "the male scientist" in our minds? We want to address this topic in an evening at the University's cinema "Gegenlicht". 

We will watch the film PICTURE A SCIENTIST, in which a female biologist, a female chemist and a female geologist take on these questions and lead us on a journey through the experiences of their academic careers - as female scientists. The documentary (English original version, German subtitles) gives hope as it tells the story of strength and solidarity, of courageous female scientists who stand up to injustice and start a global discourse of change and equality.

Afterwards, we will meet in a casual setting in freely changeable discussion groups, for a glass of wine or fizzy drink, to discuss impressions and ideas.

Talks by Neu01 (Julia) & Nav05 (Sonam)

Chair: TBD

DESY Hamburg, https://tjlane.github.io/

Host: Henrik Mouritsen

Talks by Sig01 (Krishan) & Sig06 (Rabea)

Chair: TBD

Lecture by Sig06 (Takaoki)

Chair: Srdan

No seminar as many people will be at the Young Researchers Symposium in Hamburg, 19.-21.11.25

Talks by Sig06 (Jessica) & Neu04 (Dinora)

Chair: Pedro

No seminar due to workshop on career clarity with Sabrina Satzinger

iRTG Christmas party - more information TBA

We will be on an iRTG winter break and have our first seminar in 2026 on January 15th

Talks by Nav07 (Jesu) & Nav02 (Annika)

Chair: Jonathan