School of Biology

speaker: Dr Tom Leinster (University of Glasgow, School of Mathematics and Statistics)

building: The Observatory
room: Seminar Room
see also: additional details
host/contact: Dr Janine Illian

(Joint work with Christina Cobbold)

There have been decades of debate about how best to measure
biodiversity. Dozens of measures have been proposed. The situation
had seemed forbiddingly complicated until quite recently, when work
of Jost and others cut a straight-line path through the tangle of
proposed measures. I will begin by explaining this new,
conceptually clear, understanding of diversity measurement. (No
previous knowledge of the subject will be assumed.) I will
emphasize the role of diversity profiles, a useful graphical device
for comparing one ecological community with another.

But there is still a problem. Most existing diversity measures are
completely insensitive to the varying similarities between
species, contrary to the common perception of diversity as the
"variety of life". I will show how to repair this defect, and I
will demonstrate with examples that taking inter-species similarity
into account can make a real difference to the assessment of
biodiversity.

refID: 877

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speaker: Guest Speaker Prof Tim Birkhead, FRS (University of Sheffield)

building: MBS
room: Lecture Theatre
see also: additional details
host/contact: Ms Donna Pierz-Fennell

On Friday 3 February, just before the beginning of the second semester, the school is hosting what we hope to become a new annual event: a research symposium day at the Medical and Biological Sciences Building. Our guest speaker is Prof. Tim Birkhead FRS, University of Sheffield, presenting his talk: ‘Sex in Three Easy Pardigms’. Other talks by internal school speakers will discuss the school’s areas of research excellence. Postgrads and postdocs will also be able to display posters highlighting their ongoing research!

10.00 - 10.45  Introduction: Prof Malcolm White, Update on Research and REF

10.45 - 11.00  Coffee

11.00 - 11.45  Prof Ian Boyd, Detecting and Managing Human Impacts in the Ocean

11.45 - 12.30  Prof Kevin Laland, Public Information Use in Sticklebacks: Tinbergen's 4 Questions in One System

12.30 - 13.45  Lunch and Postgrad and Postdoc Poster Sessions

13.45 - 14.30  Prof Anne Magurran, Biological Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities

14.30 - 15.15  Prof Martin Ryan, What Do Foot-and-Mouth Disease/Insect Viruses, Trypansosmes, Amphioxus, Purple Sea Urchins, Sea Acorns and Sponges Have in Common?

15.15 - 15.30  Coffee

15.30 - 16.15  Prof Keith Sillar, Making Moves: Motor Control Neuroscience Research at St Andrews

16.15 - 17.15  Keynote Speaker: Prof Tim Birkhead FRS, University of Sheffield, Sex in Three Easy Paradigms

17.15 - 17.30  Discussion and Wrap-Up

 

refID: 878

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speaker: Dr Sebastian Shimeld (University of Oxford)

building: Bute
room: Lecture Theatre D
see also: additional details
host/contact: Dr Dave Ferrier

refID: 880

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speaker: Prof Pat Willmer (University of St Andrews)

building: Bute
room: Lecture Theatre D
see also: additional details
host/contact: Dr David Shuker

refID: 881

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speaker: Prof Laurence Hurst (University of Bath)

building: Bute
room: Lecture Theatre D
see also: additional details
host/contact: Dr Dave Ferrier

refID: 882

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speaker: ()

building: Chemistry
room:
see also: additional details
host/contact:

The seminars of this academic year will again be combined in a single event, the

Second Annual Meeting of the St. Andrews
Centre of Magnetic Resonance

8 June 2012, School of Chemistry, St Andrews

Confirmed speakers:
Dr. Jonathan Goodman (Cambridge)
Prof. Peter Heathcote (QMU/St Andrews)
Dr. Paul Hodgkinson (Durham)
Prof. Gunnar Jeschke (ETH Zurich)

refID: 875

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