Summary

EPiC 2018 at the Academy of Natural Sciences was a huge success, with 108 attendees from 24 institutions. 62% of attendees were early career researchers, many of whom presented their research as one of the conference's 29 talks and 25 posters. 

 

The conference is organized by PEG, the Philadelphia

Evolution Group, which currently consists of graduate

students and faculty from Drexel University, Temple

University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

This year's organizers were:

Nate Shoobs (Drexel University and the Academy of

Natural Sciences)

Meghan Barrett (Drexel University)

Rohini Singh (University of Pennsylvania)

Alexandra Brown (University of Pennsylvania)

Rob Kulathinal (Temple University, faculty advisor)

​

EPiC received regional meeting grants from the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Naturalists. The conference was supported by the Drexel University's Academy of Natural Sciences, Temple University's Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine (iGEM), and the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Biology. Student awards were sponsored by Elsevier, which included two $250 Amazon gift cards, and GSA, which included a free professional resume review session. 

​

Dr. Jason Weckstein from the Academy of Natural Sciences was the ASN sponsored opening plenary speaker while Dr. Paul Turner from Yale University was the GSA sponsored closing plenary speaker. The full schedule can be found here.

 

The Elsevier Best Student Presentation Award went to Justin Walsh from University of Pennsylvania. The Elsevier Best Student Poster Award went to Qiqing Tao from Temple University.