Announcing the International Biogeography Society (IBS)

[Stacy J. Mantooth]

Announcing the founding and incorporation of the International Biogeography Society (IBS):

The International Biogeography Society (www.biogeography.org) was founded as a non-profit organization in 2000 with the following mission:
  a.. Foster communication and collaboration between biogeographers in disparate academic fields - scientists who would otherwise have little opportunity for substantive interaction and collaboration.
  b.. Increase both the awareness and interests of the scientific community and the lay public in the contributions of biogeographers.
  c.. Promote the training and education of biogeographers so that they may develop sound strategies for studying and conserving the world's biota.
The inaugural meeting of IBS, Frontiers of Biogeography, will be held January 4-8, 2003 at the Oasis Resort in Mesquite, Nevada (just north of Las Vegas). With this meeting, we will launch the IBS as an international and interdisciplinary society contributing to the advancement of all studies of the geography of nature. We want to create a meeting environment that maximizes opportunities for biogeographers from a wide range of disciplines to interact with one another. We therefore chose to design the meetings technical contributions around two formats.
  a.. Biogeographers from around the world have been invited to deliver oral presentations,
  organized into five symposia (see a list of symposia and presenters at the website).
  b.. We also invite meeting participants to submit titles and abstracts for contributed poster presentations (see the Call for Posters at the website).
Please visit the web site (www.biogeography.org) for complete details (contacts, officers, etc.) and download the relevant information to join as a member of IBS and register for our first meeting. Please pass this information on to your colleagues around the world that might be interested in learning about the International Biogeography Society.