Participants

Sandra is a postdoctoral researcher and teaching fellow at Ziheng Yang's lab, at University College London. Her main research interest is focused on developing and applying new methods to estimate species divergence times with molecular and morphological quantitative data. She aims to use these tools in Bayesian dating analyses when combining phylogenomic datasets with large-scale morphological datasets (with both extant and fossil species). Her ultimate goal is to ensure that all the pipelines and tools that she develops as part of the projects she is involved in are well documented, so they can be easily used to reproduce any reported results generated with them.

Gillian Barker received her training at the University of Toronto and the University of California, San Diego. She is Visiting Research Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at Western University. Dr. Barker’s research examines how the biological and social sciences deal with causal complexity, and how science can make sense of apparent normativity, intentionality, and teleology in the natural world. Her current work focuses on the distinctive features of complex adaptive systems, exploring how scientists can best grapple with these in investigating ecological resilience and evolutionary dynamics, human cognition and social behavior, and the interconnected global-scale processes upon which human societies depend. Dr. Barker is author of Beyond Biofatalism: Human Nature for an Evolving World, and co-author with Philip Kitcher of Philosophy of Science: A New Introduction.

Leonardo Bich is a ‘Ramon y Cajal’ Researcher at the IAS-Research Centre for Life, Mind, and Society of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain. He obtained a PhD in Anthropology and Epistemology of Complex Systems from the University of Bergamo. He worked at the CNRS & University of Bordeaux, at the Biology of Cognition Lab of the Universidad de Chile and, as a visiting fellow, at the Center for Philosophy of Science of the University of Pittsburgh. His research is focused on theoretical and epistemological issues related to biological organisation, autonomy, and control and on their implications for investigations in Origins of Life, Synthetic and Systems Biology, and Theoretical Biology.

Paride Bollettin obtained his PhD in Social Anthropology at the Università degli Studi di Siena. In sequence he worked as a researcher and as a professor in various universities in Italy, Brazil, Latvia and UK. Actually acts as an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University. He had worked with the Mebengokré of the Trincheira-Bacajá Indigenous Land for sixteen years, developing collaborative researches in diverse topics, including the local experiences of socio-ecological relations.

Graduated in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Bahia (2010). Master in Ecology and Biomonitoring (2013 - UFBA). Doctor in Ecology from the Federal University of Bahia, with a period at the Universidad Nacional del Río Negro, Bariloche, Argentina. Has experience in the field of Ecology, with an emphasis on Applied Ecology and Pollination. Develops studies in the area of ​​Ecology and Functional Diversity of Bees. He works at the Laboratory of Biology and Ecology of Bees with research involving citizen science and transdisciplinarity. He teaches Basic, Technical and Technological Education at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Bahia, Campus of Salvador. He currently serves as head of the Department of Health Technology and Biology (DTSBio). He is a Researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Inter and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution - INCT-IN TREE. Email: jeferson.gabriel@gmail.com

Eric Desjardins is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western University and the Associate Director of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. He works on the normative dimensions of historical contingency and biological entanglement in various life sciences. The main goals of his research are 1) to clarify the meaning of and relation between these two notions, 2) explore and develop conceptual frameworks that can explain their relevance in various disciplines (especially experimental evolution and ecology), and 3) show how these frameworks can be used in promoting more effective and ethical decision making in an increasingly human-impacted world.

Justin Donhauser's work tackles methodological, practical, and broadly social issues at the intersection of applied sciences and public policy and resource management in a practicable way. He specializes in the logic and philosophical foundations of big‐data and statistical modelling methods in systems ecology and climate science, and, more recently, also has numerous projects on issues in applied AI and robotics in those and other areas.

Phil is Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol, UK. His research focusses on the causes and consequences of major evolutionary transitions, drawing insight from anatomical and molecular data from living and fossil organisms. Major themes include the origins of animals, plants, and the establishment of evolutionary timescales.