PASI: Advanced Tunicate Biology: Integrating Modern and Traditional Techniques for the Study of Ascidians; Bocas del Toro, Panama; June/July 2011

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This Pan-American Advanced Studies Institutes (PASI) award, jointly supported by the NSF and the Department of Energy (DOE), will take place during 3 weeks of June/July 2011 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's (STRI) Bocas del Toro Research Station (BRS) in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Organized by Dr. Rachel Collin of the STRI in Panama, the PASI will address tunicate biology for advanced graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and new PhDs. Tunicates represent the sister group to vertebrates and are therefore an important group with which to elucidate patterns and processes such as the evolution of development. The course covers traditional morphological and more recent molecular methods for the investigation of tunicate biology, ecology, phylogenetics and evolution. The assembled group of lecturers is uniquely qualified to produce and disseminate a large amount of information on the Caribbean fauna. The course will consist of lectures and field and laboratory exercises that cover a wide range of topics. Participants will be drawn from the US, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, and Europe.The argument that systematic research has waned recently makes a compelling case for training tunicate biologists in more traditional skills like morphological identification, taxonomy, and systematics. Expected outcomes in this PASI include 1) addressing contemporary concerns involving the tunicates; 2) training the next generation of systematists with the essential skills to study this group of organisms; and, 3) making information on tunicate identification and collection available on the internet. The PASI results will be disseminated through electronic devices for educational purposes, updates to the Bocas Biodiversity Inventory Database, and by adding DNA barcodes to the global BOLD database.