Human Evolution - From Fossils to Ancient and Modern Genomes (Virtual Conference)

Understanding of human evolution and history is being reshaped by recent archaeological and palaeontological discoveries, and the application of genomic analysis.  This virtual event will highlight emerging archaeological discoveries and advances in genetic tools that are transforming the field.

The focus of this year’s conference will be human demography, genetic admixture and adaptation, human evolution and disease, as well as population structure.  Palaeoanthropology, linguistic ancient DNA methods, languages and culture will also be discussed.

This online event is aimed at archaeologists, population and evolutionary geneticists, archaeologists, linguists, palaeontologists, primatologists and medical geneticists with an interest in human evolution.

Global participation is encouraged with sessions running in afternoons for Europe and Africa | mornings for the Americas.

The conference will run from Tuesday, 02 November until Thursday, 04 November 2021. Sessions will start at 12:00 GMT and finish at approximately 18:00 GMT each day.  See the time where you are here.

Topics will include:

• Human Adaptation
• Human Evolution and disease
• Ancient and modern genetic admixture
• Inferring human demography from genomic data
• Population Structure
• Palaeoanthropology | Human Evolution
• Languages, culture and history

Scientific programme committee

Marta Mirazon Lahr
University of Cambridge, UK

Lluis Quintana-Murci
Institut Pasteur & Collège de France, France

Carina Schlebusch
Uppsala University, Sweden

Michael Westaway
The University of Queensland, Australia

Keynote speakers

Anna Di Rienzo
University of Chicago, USA

Jean-Jacques Hublin
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Confirmed speakers

Aida Andres – UCL, UK
Michael Dannemann – University Tartu, Estonia
Michael  Dunn – Uppsala University, Sweden
Anne-Maria Fehn – CIBIO, Portugal
Qiaomei Fu – Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Yohannes Haile-Selassie – Cleveland Museum of Natural History, USA
Iain Mathieson – University of Pennsylvania, USA
Priya Moorjani – UC Berkeley, USA
Andres Moreno Estrada – Langebio, Cinvestav, Mexico
Marc Oxenham – University of Aberdeen, UK
Etienne Patin – Institut Pasteur, France
Emma Pomeroy – University of Cambridge, UK
Rihlat Said-Mohamed – University of Cambridge, UK
Dhriti Sengupta – University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, UK
Chris Stringer – Natural History Museum, UK

Organisers – Wellcome Connecting Science

Jemma Hume – Conference Organiser
Jane Murphy – Scientific Programme Officer

Registration deadline: 28 October 2021
Bursary deadline: 21 September 2021

Registration includes:

• access to the virtual event portal (Log in details will be emailed a few days before the event starts)
• live-stream sessions, including posters and online networking channels
• recordings of the live-stream sessions, available ‘on-demand’ for four weeks after the event ends.

*To increase the international diversity of attendees at our meetings, we have reduced fees for delegates from Lower and Middle Income Countries (see list of countries here).

If you are in need of financial support and would like to apply for a bursary, please follow the instructions below.

Bursaries

A limited number of bursaries are available to cover up to 100% of the registration fee.

To apply, please complete your event registration and bursary application via this unique link before the bursary deadline. For your application to be considered and your place reserved, you must also submit the following supporting documents:

• letter stating financial need and explaining how you will benefit from attending the event
• brief CV.

We will be contact with the result of your application shortly after the bursary deadline.

If you have any questions, please contact the conference organiser.

Abstract deadline: 21 September 2021

We welcome abstracts from all areas relevant to the main themes of the meeting, for both oral and poster presentations. Several oral presentations will be chosen from the abstracts submitted.

Abstracts will only be considered from registered delegates. Please use our online abstract submission system and follow the instructions below to ensure your abstract is submitted correctly. All abstracts must be submitted by the deadline. If you are intending to submit more than one abstract, please contact the conference organiser prior to registration.

The scientific programme committee will assess your abstract after the deadline has passed and you will be notified whether you have been selected for an oral or poster presentation. All those accepted for a poster presentation will be given the opportunity to upload a short video describing their work.

Uploading abstracts after completed registration:

1. Login to your account via ‘My Account’.
2. Click on ‘View account history’ to show a table of your event registrations.
3. Select the appropriate conference
4. Click on ‘Upload file’ (in right hand column).
5. Select ‘Abstract’ and upload via the abstract form.
6. If you wish to upload a second abstract, click on ‘Additional Abstract’ and again upload via the abstract form.

Please note: documents submitted via ‘Supporting Documents’ are for bursary applications only and cannot be seen during the abstract selection process.

If you are interested in supporting this meeting, please contact the conference organiser.

A change of climate: The impact of recent research on our understanding of human evolution

Keynote lecture by Robert Foley (University of Cambridge, UK) at Human Evolution 2019

Human Evolutionary Studies

Keynote lecture by Chris Tyler Smith (Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK) at Human Evolution 2019