Balzan Symposium Held by P.and R. Grant at Princeton University (anglais, news, 15.09.2008)

États-Unis/Royame-Uni

Peter et Rosemary Grant

Prix Balzan 2005 pour la biologie des populations

Peter et Rosemary Grant se sont distingués par les importants travaux qu’ils ont poursuivis sur le long terme sur l’évolution des pinsons des Galapagos. Ils ont décrit comment la sélection naturelle entraîne, en fonction de la disponibilité de nourriture, des changements rapides dans la taille du corps et du bec de ces oiseaux. Ils ont également élucidé les mécanismes grâce auxquels de nouvelles espèces voient le jour et la façon dont la diversité génétique est maintenue dans les populations naturelles. Les travaux des Grant ont eu une influence fondamentale dans les domaines de la biologie des populations, de l’évolution et de l’écologie.

Balzan Symposium held by Peter and Rosemary Grant at Princeton University (news 15.09.2008)

A symposium on population biology and evolution was held at Princeton University on September 5 – 6, 2008.
The symposium, organized by Peter and Rosemary Grant, was a discussion of the research projects that were made possible thanks to the 2005 Balzan Prize, which the Grants won for their work on the evolution of Darwin’s Finches on the Galápagos Islands. A condition of the prize is that the Prizewinners must destine half of the prize to finance research projects that are preferably carried out by young scholars or scientists, to facilitate and promote scientific research.

The meeting was an exploration of the results of the research studies on small populations that were financed by the prize money awarded to the Grants by the International Balzan Foundation in 2005. Four young researchers, Maria Margarita Womack from Princeton, Paquita Hoeck from Zurich, Jennifer Gee and Céline Clabaut from Harvard, presented their research to the scientific community at Robertson Hall, Princeton University. Several outstanding scientists from all over the world and four students from Universities in Ecuador, the Universidad de San Francisco and the Universidad Católica de Quito (Ecuador), also presented brief summaries of their research.

On September 4, 2008, the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology departments at Princeton University held a day of seminars to honour Peter and Rosemary Grant.