Molecular evolution is an interdisciplinary, dynamic, and growing field that attracts researchers from a wide variety of fields to address cutting-edge research in a collaborative and integrative manner. The rapid accumulation of complete genome sequence data in a variety of organisms has triggered this growth in molecular evolution research. One outcome is that molecular evolution now informs many disciplines within biology. The 2008 Gordon Research Conference on Molecular Evolution will highlight molecular evolution at the population level and will include sessions on topics such as adaptive landscapes, evolvability, molecular evolution and environmental genomics, molecular basis of heart evolution, computational and statistical advances among other topics. The aim is to bring together researchers from a diversity of research areas to explore common questions in molecular evolution in novel and integrative ways. Previous Gordon Research Conferences in molecular evolution have been highly successful because they brought together diverse scientists who are united by a common intellectual theme. The proposed program is designed to continue this successful focus on multidisciplinary approaches to cutting edge topics.
