Conference Organizers

Angela Douglas
Department of Entomology
Comstock Hall
Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
aes326@cornell.edu

Mary Alice Coffroth
Department of Geology
411 Cooke Hall
University at Buffalo Buffalo NY 14260 -1350
Coffroth@buffalo.edu


Anne Clark
Biological Sciences
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13902
aclark@binghamton.edu

CONFERENCE VENUE

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
Travel and accommodation information

Conference Theme

The individual is not enough. Different disciplines are independently discovering that the traits of individuals can only be explained fully and predicted accurately in the context of their membership of a cooperative group. The increasing recognition of the importance of cooperation brings many problems into focus: How can the self-interest of the individual be compatible with the needs of the group? How are group members chosen and how is their behavior monitored and possibly controlled? How are group decisions made, and how do these decisions differ from decisions made by individuals?

The purpose of this meeting is to provide a venue for researchers from different disciplines to meet, explore common problems and share solutions in the analysis of cooperation. We have some specific goals:

• To identify principles common to different disciplines
• To promote the wider application of approaches and models developed in one discipline
• To generate opportunities for interdisciplinary research

Everyone with an interest in cooperation is very welcome! We particularly welcome colleagues in the social sciences and humanities to promote the interdisciplinarity of the meeting. Numbers of participants are limited to 80 at our venue, and places will be allocated in order of receipt of registration materials. So do register promptly. Registration will close on September 25th, 2009.

Conference Schedule

Registration from 8:15 am on Friday, October 16th
Coffee will be available during registration.

9:00 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

9:10 - 10:35 GROUP LIFE

• 9:10 - 9:40 Keynote presentation:
  Group selection: a tale of two controversies
  Robert Boyd - UCLA
  
• 9:50 -10:10 Tom Seeley (Cornell University)
  Cooperative group decision making:  lessons from nature
• 10:15 - 10:35: Andreas Koenig & Carola Borries
  (Stony Brook)
  Territoriality, female dispersal, and potential benefits of living with multiple males

10.40 -11:00: COFFEE BREAK

11:00 - 12:30 GROUP MEMBER CHOICE

• 11:00 - 11:30 Keynote presentation:
  Good food and conversation: Understanding cooperation in the squid-Vibrio symbiosis
  Ned Ruby - Madison Symbiosis Cluster, U. Wisc.
  
• 11:40 - 12:00 Mary Alice Coffroth (Buffalo)
  Picking your friends - ontogeny of coral-algal symbioses
• 12:05 -12:25 Pat Barclay (Cornell)
  Partner choice and competitive altruism

12:30-1:30 POSTER SESSION AND LUNCH

1:30 - 3:00 CHEATS AND POLICING

• 1:30 - 2:.00 Keynote presentation:
  The prince & the bulldog: The first skirmish in the war over why cooperation evolved
  Lee Dugatkin - University of Louisville
  
• 2:10 - 2:30 Scott Turner (Syracuse)
  Do cheaters prosper? Sordid features of sociality in termites
• 2:35 - 2:55 Kern Reeve (Cornell)
  The coevolution of policing and selfishness: a game theoretic model    

3:00 - 3:20 COFFEE BREAK

3:20 - 4:40 COOPERATIVE COMMUNITIES

• 3.20 - 3:40 Carol Berman (Buffalo)
  Preventing revolution among male Tibetan macaque
• 3:45 - 4:05 Alex Rickard (Binghamton)
  Bacterial sociology in a biofilm world
• 4:10 - 4:40 Keynote presentation:
  Studying human prosociality at a city-wide scale
  David Sloan Wilson - Professor of Biology and Evolutionary Studies Program at Binghamton University
  

4:45 - 5:45 PANEL DISCUSSION

Panel members will include:

• Anurag Agrawal
• Robert Boyd
• Ann Clark
• Lee Dugatkin
• Ned Ruby
• David Sloan Wilson

Participants are encouraged to submit posters. Details of the accepted posters, including abstracts, will be available on-line
in early October.

A key aim of the conference is to encourage communication across disciplines. The speaker will design their presentations to be accessible to colleagues with different expertise, without simplifying the real problems. The schedule is designed to promote discussion:

• Opportunity for questions and discussion after each presentation (10 minutes for keynote speakers and 5 minutes for other speakers)
• Opportunity for  informal discussion at coffee breaks and lunch
• Panel discussion at the end of the meeting. Questions and comments will be taken from the floor and from a Question Box, to which participants are encouraged to contribute through the day.