YETI, the annual Young Ecologists Talk and Interact, which has been witnessing a large student participation, is back and will kick off in Guwahati on Tuesday.
The four-day conference is organised entirely for students and by students — primarily from the Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Biological Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, and Nature Conservation Foundation — to serve as a platform for ecologists early in their career to present their research and strike up collaborations with contemporaries across the country.
“The idea is that young ecologists who often work in isolation in different corners of the country can now interact and share their research and get a broader perspective,” said Suhel Quader, an evolutionary ecologist and research fellow at the National Centre for Biological Sciences. “The second objective of the conference is that students learn specific skills for their research.”
While the lectures will look at the many facets of ecology, such as forest structuring, behaviour among primates, community conservation and herpetology, workshops will help students sharpen research skills and give them lessons on how to publish the research material.
Other forums will help demystify mathematical models of ecology, statistical techniques and the use of GPS in biological sciences. Ph.D. students will get tips on how to manage data, the ethics in research and writing and planning careers.
The organisers believe that the acronym ‘YETI' is an appropriate mascot for this conference “as it is symbolic of the work ecologists do: search for the mysterious and unknown in the natural world, in the hope that there is something exciting to be discovered just around the corner.”
YETI will be held in IIT-Guwahati between December 13 and 15 and around 500 researchers have registered for the conference so far.
The Hindu is the media partner for the event.
