Future Directions in Biodiversity and Systematics Research

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An award to Chicago Botanic Garden is made to support a series of three workshops to discuss progress, priorities, and future directions in biodiversity, taxonomy, and systematics research. Taxonomists and systematists work to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the Earth's biological diversity and its evolutionary history, but the research is labor intensive and is replete with logistical, theoretical, and analytical challenges. These workshops will assess what has been achieved in biodiversity inventory, taxonomy and systematics research and what the most pressing research questions and priorities are today. The workshops will explore what the most exciting new research opportunities are, especially those that intersect with other disciplines. New tools, new technologies, and refined analytical methods will be discussed. Each workshop will be three days in length and will include 25 participants. Participant selection is based on multiple criteria: maximize taxonomic diversity representation; balance between specialists working on biodiversity inventory, taxonomy, and phylogeny; representation of museums, botanic gardens, universities, colleges, and other institutions. Workshop management will be handled by three co-organizers and a steering committee of six. The workshops will have essentially identical agendas for discussion topics and will be organized geographically, with one in the East, one in the Midwest, and one in the West. After the workshops are concluded the organizers and steering committee will prepare a comprehensive report. The report will be made available on appropriate web sites and a manuscript will be prepared for publication in an appropriate journal to explain the importance and relevance of research in biodiversity, taxonomy, and systematics.