Key dates

Workshop dates: July 11 - 14. Starts with a welcome event and dinner from 18:00 on Tuesday 11th. The scientific programme ends 17:00 on Friday 14th.

Registration is closed. All applicants have been informed about the outcome of their application.

Overview

Increasingly sophisticated methods are being developed to answer fundamental questions about microbial ecosystems in the wild, in the lab, and in theoretical models:  

• what are adequate descriptors of microbial collectives (genetic, metabolic, abundance-related)?
• what mechanisms enable microbial diversity?
• how do we measure / interpret / model the interactions between microbes?
• how can we predict / design community composition and function?
• what is the role of fluctuations - demographic, environmental, and nonlinear feedback?

To tackle the high complexity of diverse microbial ecosystems, an integration of insights from across different perspectives and methodologies is key. This small-scale workshop aims to create opportunities for fruitful communication across disciplinary boundaries.

The workshop is hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, located in the beautiful lakeside town of Plön (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany).

Organizers: Emil Mallmin, Silvia De Monte, Martina dal Bello, Jules Fraboul, Giulia Lorenzana Garcia

Invited speakers

Ada Altieri, Université Paris Cité

Giulio Biroli, Laboratoire de Physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure

Matthieu Barbier, Institut Natura e Teoria Pirenèus (unable to attend)

Elisa Benincà, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RVIM) (unable to attend)

Ruben Garrido-Oter, MPI for Plant Breeding Research

Stephan Munch, NOAA Fisheries; University of California Santa Cruz

James O’Dwyer, University of Illinois

Kiran Patil, University of Cambridge

Jarone Pinhassi, Linnæus University

Alexandra Worden, GEOMAR Helmholtz Center; MPI for Evolutionary Biology

Practical information

There is no participation fee.

The workshop will start in the evening of July 11, in order to accommodate long travel schedules.

Travel: directions to MPI Plön. We encourage participants to use train connections whenever this is feasible.

The nearest large airport is in Hamburg, from which Plön is reached via regional train or bus in about 2 hours.