Course: Evolution and Development in Fishes

• Grant number: 17/05504-8
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: June 07, 2017
• End date: June 18, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal Investigator: Tiana Kohlsdorf
• Grantee: Tiana Kohlsdorf
• Visiting researcher: Karen D. Crow
• Visiting researcher institution: San Francisco State University , United States
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Ribeirão Preto
• Associated research grant: 15/07650-6 - Ecology, evolution and development (Eco-Evo-Devo) in the Brazilian herpetofauna, AP.TEM

Abstract

The presence of theoretical concepts fundamental to the Evolutionary Theory under the EvoDevo approach remains relegated in most Brazilian courses of Biological Sciences. Its intensity in obligatory courses for undergraduate and graduate students depends on the affinity of the professor teaching the course with the topic of EvoDevo. However, Brazil is starting to face the effects of recent returns to the Country of researchers trained abroad on the Extended Syntesis of Evolutionary Theory, multiplying the research groups interested in studies using the aforementioned approach. The increasing interest on the field turns the present moment extremely favorable for training of human resources on Evo-Devo and its derivatives (as a field referred as Eco-Evo-Devo). This proposal for a grant on visiting professor complements an initiative funded by FAPESP in 2015 when Professor Gunter P. Wagner (Yale University) visited USP at Ribeirão Preto with the visit of Professor Karen Crow (San Francisco State University). During her visit, Dr. Karen Crow will teach a short course in Evo-Devo at FFCLRP/USP, introducing Osteichthyes as a biological system for studies in Evolution and Developmental Biology. The proposal aims to strengthen the research in Evo-Devo and related topics through the offer of a course dedicated to human resources training in concepts and methodologies that are central to Evo-Devo. In addition, Dr. Karen Crow will also provide scientific counseling to ongoing projects at USP, especially those associated to the Graduate Program in Comparative Biology from FFCLRP/USP. (AU)