Titles of Talks

A Tribute to Larry McEdward and an Introduction to the Symposium—Benjamin Miner

Evolutionary mechanisms that operate on embryonic gene expression in purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus—Greg Wray

Evo-Devo and the Asteroidea—Maria Byrne

To Settle or to Swim? Ascidian Larval Decisions—Billie Swalla

Dispersal and divergence across the greatest ocean: Do larvae matter?—Gustav Paulay

Recent Progress in Understanding Larval Dispersal: New Directions and Digressions—Lisa Levin

Good Eaters, Poor Swimmers: Compromises in Larval Form—Richard Strathmann

Theory and empirical evidence for the role of egg size on fertilization success in marine invertebrates—Don Levitan

Larval experience and carryover effects—metamorphosis is not a new beginning—Jan Pechenik

Linking stages of life history: How larval quality translates into juvenile performance—Richard Emlet

Larry McEdward's legacy and influence on future research in complex life histories.—Dianna Padilla

PARTICIPANTS
Dr. Maria Byrne is an Associate Professor in the Department Anatomy and Histology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and the Director of the One Tree Island Research Station. She has made important contributions to our understanding of the evolution of developmental patterns through her work on the Patiriella seastars, a group that has recently evolved an amazing diversity of life histories.

Dr. Richard Emlet is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Oregon. Through a diversity of approaches, his work addresses questions about the ecology and evolution of complex life-histories.

Dr. Lisa Levin is a Full Professor in the Division of Integrative Oceanography at Scripts Oceanographic Institution, University of California, San Diego. Her interests include life-history plasticity within species, larval dispersal and the influence of life histories on population dynamics.

Dr. Don Levitan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida State University. He is an expert in the study of life-history evolution and population ecology of marine invertebrates. His work answers questions relevant to the intersection of these two fields, like how life-history parameters influence population size and structure, and the evolution of life histories in marine invertebrates.

Dr. Benjamin Miner is a Postdoctoral Associate for the Bodega Marine Laboratory and the Center for Population Biology at the University of California, Davis. His research focuses on the ecology and evolution of phenotypic plasticity and marine invertebrates, as well as the evolution of life histories in marine invertebrates.

Dr. Dianna Padilla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Stony Brook University. She studies evolutionary ecology, phenotypic plasticity, invasion biology, and how life history and larval dispersal affect population dynamics of benthic species and the potential for plasticities.

Dr. Gustav Paulay is an Assistant Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History, and Joint Faculty in Zoology at the University of Florida. He is an expert on marine invertebrates and their larvae from the Indo-Pacific. His work focuses on questions pertaining to biodiversity and dispersal.

Dr. Jan Pechenik is a Full Professor in the Department of Biology at Tufts University. His career has focused on larval ecology, especially on the transition from planktonic to benthic stages and controls on metamorphosis.

Dr. Richard Strathmann is a Full Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington, and the Assistant Director of the Friday Harbor Laboratories. He is widely recognized as the world leader in studies of the ecology, evolution, and functional morphology of marine invertebrate larvae and complex life-histories. His work has laid out many of the fundamental questions that have been asked regarding marine invertebrate life histories, and has had an enormous impact on the development of this field.

Dr. Billie Swalla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington. She is a leader in the relatively new field of Evolution and Development (EvoDevo). Her research combines methods and approaches in phylogenetics, development, ecology and evolution to study the evolution of early life histories and the vertebrate body plan.

Dr. Greg Wray is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Duke University. He is interested in the evolution of development and the molecular evolution of transcriptional regulation, especially those associated with larval stages. Along with Dr. Swalla, he is a leader in the new field of EvoDevo.