Young Systematists' Forum
An exciting setting for postgraduate students and early postdoctoral researchers to present their work to a scientific audience interested in taxonomy and systematic biology.
About the Young Systematists' Forum
The Young Systematists’ Forum represents an exciting setting for postgraduate students and early postdoctoral researchers to present their work to a scientific audience interested in taxonomy and systematic biology. This well-established event provides an opportunity for budding systematists to discuss their research, often for the first time, in front of their peers within a supportive environment. Supervisors and other established systematists are also welcome and encouraged to attend.
YSF are very dynamic meetings, with wide international attendance and great interactions. We award prizes for the most promising talk and flash presentations as judged by a small panel on the day.
2023 marked the 25th anniversary of the Young Systematists’ Forum, our longest running event. Please spread the word and join us in celebrating Systematics again this year!
How to participate
This is an online event, and registration is free and open to everyone. Non-presenting attendees, supervisors and anyone with an interest in systematics is welcome.
Registration and abstract submission will open around late September. When you register, you will be asked to supply your name and contact information. If you would like to present your research, you will also be asked to tell us whether you wish to give a full talk or a flash presentation. Please also tell us your academic stage – e.g., Master’s, PhD or postdoc, and affiliation. Spaces will be allocated subject to availability and for a balanced programme of animal, plant, algal, microbial, molecular and other research.
If you have presented a talk at the YSF before, we ask that you submit only for a flash presentation, as speaker slots are limited and we want to give as many people a chance as possible. If you are a postdoc, please be aware that it is unlikely we will be able to give you a chance to present here, as the aim is to give more junior researchers their first experience in a supportive international setting. There will a postdoc dedicated session at our International Biennial meeting in summer 2024. All registered attendants will receive further information about the meeting, including abstracts, by e-mail before the meeting. This information will also be available on this page.
Last year’s meeting was very dynamic, with wide international attendance and great interactions. We’re looking forward to meeting you online again!
Contact
Any questions or comments? Would you like to sponsor future editions? Please contact the organising committee at ysf@systass.org or using our social media channels.
Organisers
Ellinor Michel (Natural History Museum London), Katie Collins (Natural History Museum London), Ana Serra Silva (University College London), Kálmán Könyves (Royal Horticultural Society), Peter Mulhair (University of Oxford), and Pablo Muñoz-Rodríguez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), with the support of The Systematics Association Council.
Sponsors
Previous Editions
The first edition of the Young Systematists’ Forum took place in 1999. Until the coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was held at the Natural History Museum. In 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic, we decided to organise a fully online conference, and repeated the format in 2021 and 2022. This new format has been very successful, with an overwhelming number of young systematists attending from all over the world. The YSF2022 for example congregated 200 attendees from 54 countries.
Presentations from previous editions are available on our YouTube channel: