Evolution 2023 SSB Presidential Address
On June 24, 2023, I gave a talk as the Society of Systematic Biologists past president. Here is material related to the talk.
Talk recording
Jump to sections of talk:
- Species delimitation: Naming a species and one of the first tests of the US Endangered Species Act
- Misconduct in our field: How calling out misconduct, and a lot of work by many people, led to changes
- Eponyms in our field: Issues with naming awards (and more) after people
- Eugenics and our past and current role in it: How our field has been involved in eugenics and how long it has persisted after its supposed end
Talk slides
Feel free to use these for social media.
Snail darter and the dam
- Overview, including the recovery
- The Snail Darter and the Dam by Zygmunt Plater, the assistant law professor who brought the case and argued it, successfully, before the US Supreme Court. He was also on the petition to delist the recovered species
- David Etnier obituary from May, 2023
- Etnier, D.A. (1976) “Percina (Imostoma) tanasi, A new percid fish from the Little Tennessee River, Tennessee.” Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 88(44) 469-488
- Modern TVA description of the Tellico Dam
- Tennessee Valley Authority vs Hill Supreme Court Case: includes links to lots of material, including recordings of oral arguments
Misconduct
- Proposed code of ethics: evolutioncodeofethics.org
- Safe Evolution
- Policy overview
- Detailed reporting procedures (PDF)
- Safety officer (for Evolution 2023): Kerrell Dunsmore, evolutionsafetyofficer@gmail.com, 480-609-3999
- Transparency reports: 2017-8, 2019, 2020 no meeting, 2021, 2022
- Evo Allies program
- Poster with survey results on experiences in the field and at the meeting
- Clancy, KBH; RG Nelson; JN Rutherford; K Hinde. (2014) “Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees Report Harassment and Assault.” PLOS ONE
- Academic Sexual Misconduct Database started by Julie Libarkin
- Andrea Case, long term chair of the Tri-Societies Code of Conduct Committee. Recently inducted as an AAAS fellow
- Societies Consortium group, a network of scientific societies working for reducing harassment and bias
- NSF (US National Science Foundation, a major source of science research funding)
- Safe and Inclusive working environment requirements FAQ
- Notification requirement for findings of sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, or sexual assault (includes a bit of data on reporting over the past few years)
- National Academies report on sexual harassment
Award naming
Changes and attempted changes
Further reading on naming
- Bazner, K.J., J. Vaid, and C.A. Stanley. 2020. “Who is meritorious? Gendered and racialized discourse in named award descriptions in professional societies of higher education” Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 34(2): 108-124
- Pourret, O., P. Anand, S. Arndt, P. Bots, A. Dosseto, Z. Li, J.M. Carbonne, J. Middleton, B. Ngwenya, and A. J.V. Riches. 2021. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Tackling underrepresentation and recognition of talents in geochemistry and cosmochemistry” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 310: 363-371.
- Guedes, P., F. Alves-Martins, J.M. Arribas, S. Chatterjee, A.M.C. Santos, A. Lewin, L. Bako, P.W. Webala, R.A. Correia, R. Rocha & R.J. Ladle. 2023. “Eponyms have no place in 21st-century biological nomenclature.” Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Smith, G.F. and E. Figueiredo. 2021. “‘Rhodes-’ must fall: Some of the consequences of colonialism for botany and plant nomenclature”. Taxon 71(1): 1-5
- Berenbaum, M. 2010. “ICE Breakers.” American Entomologist 56(3): 132-133 & 185
- Ogbunu, C.B. 2022. “Ghosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us. We Can Put Them to Rest.” https://race.undark.org/articles/ghosts-of-science-past-still-haunt-us-we-can-put-them-to-rest.
Eugenics
- Timnit Gebru talk on modern eugenics and post about this and effective altruism.
- Sterilization of Native Americans
- Sterilization of California inmates without informed consent
- Reduced sentences for inmates opting to be sterilized in Tennessee
- Videos of talks in the 2023 SSE Presidential Symposium:
- Brian Donovan – Genetics Education Needs to Move Beyond Mendel to Combat White Supremacy
- Joanne Woiak – History of Eugenics and Disability
- Graham Coop – Describing Human Genetic Variation
- Jed Carlson – Combating the Weaponization of Science
- Control by Adam Rutherford: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324035602
- Rutherford, A. 2021. “A cautionary history of eugenics.” Science. 373: 6562
- Mazumdar, P.M.H. 2002. “‘Reform’ eugenics and the decline of Mendelism.” Trends in Genetics 18(1): 48-52
- Allan, G.E. 1986. “The Eugenics Records Office at Cold Spring Harbor, 1910-1940: An Essay in Institutional History.” Osiris 2: 225-264.
- Muller, H.J. 1950. “Our Load of Mutations.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 2(2): 111-176
- Riddle, O. 1946. “Biographical Memoir of Charles Benedict Davenport.” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs
- Bodmer, W., R. A. Bailey, B. Charlesworth, A. Eyre-Walker, V. Farewell, A. Mead, S. Senn. 2021. “The outstanding scientist, R.A. Fisher: his views on eugenics and race.” Heredity 126:565–576
- The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection by R.A. Fisher, 1930. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/27468
- Mayr, E. 1971. Letter to Francis Crick
- Hardin, G. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science 162(3859): 1243-1248.
- Presser, H.B. 1969. “The Role of Sterilization in Controlling Puerto Rican Fertility.” Population Studies 23(3): 343-361
- Buck Vs Bell, 1927
Eugenics analysis
https://github.com/bomeara/EugenicsPublicationAnalysis. Note that as I’m not sure about licensing for downloaded Web of Science data, it starts one step after the actual run process, after all the downloaded files have been aggregated. See the readme for more. It uses R and targets for a workflow.
