Good afternoon CGIL,   

This week we are happy to have Dr. Aryn Wilder, a Conservation Geneticist at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, presenting for us on Friday, January 24th, 2025. The seminar will begin at 1:30 PM EDT/EST on the virtual platform Microsoft Teams. The presentation title is: “Using genomics for the conservation and restoration of endangered species”  

Speaker Bio: Dr. Aryn Wilder is a Scientist in Conservation Genetics at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, where she applies genomic tools to study the impacts of human activities on natural populations. Her work focuses on identifying populations at risk of extinction and developing effective strategies to conserve them. Dr. Wilder's research spans topics such as rapid evolution driven by harvesting or habitat fragmentation, the spread of introduced pathogens, fitness tradeoffs of inbreeding and outbreeding, and the role of genome-wide genetic variation in extinction risk. 

With a Ph.D. in Biology from Boston University (2014), Dr. Wilder has held research positions at leading institutions, including postdoctoral roles at Cornell University and Boston University. Since 2018, she has also served as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Biology at the University of California, San Diego. 

Dr. Wilder is dedicated to integrating innovative genetic research with on-the-ground conservation efforts to protect biodiversity for future generations. 

Information to attend: To join this seminar, please ensure you have downloaded the Microsoft Teams application to your computer or join the meeting online using the web browser version of Microsoft Teams. Please join the meeting with your microphone on mute and the camera turned off. After the presentation, you can unmute the microphone, and optionally turn on the camera, if you wish to ask a question. Alternatively, if you wish to pose your question in the chat function, the presenter will answer questions made through the chat.  

Teams link to attend: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_N2VhZGJmNzQtMWQ1Yy00ZWIwLWJkYzgtZmI1MzQyY2JiOTEz%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%2522be62a12b-2cad-49a1-a5fa-85f4f3156a7d%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%2522522551ba-0e93-4d61-8464-d782a9e7306d%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=487ffc9e-b371-4e9a-a575-810fdf1056f5&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true [1] 

*Recordings of previous CGIL seminars are available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQ_5WCTMRQ6Gs35yROqGIQ/featured [2]   

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!   

Gabby Condello and Ella Dodd.