The 2009 Gordon Conference on Evolutionary & Ecological Functional Genomics will present cutting-edge snapshots of ways in which genomics approaches are being used to study adaptation of organisms to changing environments, genome evolution and population genetics, as well as the role of genomic evolution in the evolution of complex phenotypes. In particular, several of the talks this year will highlight "global change genomics" and evidence for evolution at the molecular and phenotypic levels in response to climate change. A diversity of sessions will highlight recent results from natural as well as experimental populations, and will cover both non-model and model species. There will be an exciting balance between ecologists using genomics to study adaptation in rapidly evolving systems, as well as genomicists turning large-scale sequence, expression and functional assays to study variation among populations and species. Several sessions will emphasize recent findings on plant ecological genomics. Other topics will include the evolutionary genomics of infectious disease; microbial metagenomics; population genomics of model species (such as humans, Drosophila and yeast); and the genomics of speciation.

The conveners, Scott Edwards (Harvard) and Loretta Johnson (Kansas State University) have invited 22 world-class speakers in these diverse areas, all of whom will be presenting at this particular Gordon conference for the very first time. Many are young investigators with exciting new systems to discuss whereas we also have several established leaders of the field. The conveners are committed to assembling a diverse conference and are actively applying for funds to allow graduate students and others to attend. Although attendance at Gordon conferences is by application, we intend to admit as many as we can on a first-come-first serve basis, and the limit for this particular conference is 135 attendees. We hope to see you there!