On October 23rd, 2021 Chapman University hosted the 8th Annual Southwest Regional Meeting of Organismal Biologists, where students, faculty, and postdocs are able to discuss research through short talks, posters, and informal discussions.

 

Dr. Doug Fudge and Dr. Patricia Lopes hosted over 100 visiting biologists and students who are doing integrative research in the Southwest United States Region. With 7 Chapman student presenters, the conference was hosted by Chapman for the first time in history with the greatest amount of Chapman student research presented to date. The conference was made possible with a generous award by Chapman University, the 2020-2021 On-Campus Conference/Workshop Award, Chapman Staff, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Division of Comparative Biomechanics, and support from the Southern California Academy of Sciences.

 

Zach Baker Presentation

 

Dr. Patricia Lopes reflected on the conference, “What I feel was special was re-connecting with colleagues in person after a long hiatus, due to the pandemic. For an in-person conference to work right now, everyone must collaborate to make it safe, and I felt like we had a very safe environment.”

Dr. Doug Fudge stated, “as Patricia noted, we heard from a lot of people that they really appreciated being able to attend their first in-person conference in a long time. We had a fantastic plenary address by Dr. Kakani Katija from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. And one of the special things about this conference is that it is a supportive environment for budding scientists (i.e. undergrad and early graduate researchers) to give their first research talk to an audience of biologists.”

Congratulations to all the Chapman presenters and Dr. Fudge and Dr. Lopes on their hard work in order to host the conference!

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