Scott F. Gilbert is the Howard A. Schneiderman Professor of Biology, emeritus, at Swarthmore College and a Finland Distinguished Professor, emeritus, at the University of Helsinki. Among other books, Scott is the author of "Developmental Biology" and "Evolutionary Developmental Biology", two of the most widely used textbooks in the field. Scott is a recipient of the Kowalevski Award in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. He has been working for almost 30 years in Evo-Devo and has contributed to fascinating work on the development and evolution of turtle shells and of holobionts.
Steph is a physico-biologist interested in the evolution of multicellularity and the mechanics of morphogenesis. They are currently leading biophysical projects at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge, UK. Steph combines experimental and theoretical approaches to explore the mechano-chemical regulation of morphogenesis. After completing their PhD at the Dept. of Cell and Developmental Biology at Bielefeld University, Steph joined the Biological Physics & Mechanics Group lead by Prof. Raymond Goldstein, University of Cambridge. There they included Soft Matter Physics and Theoretical Modelling into studies on cell sheet folding. They constructed a custom-built light sheet microscope and now combine advanced imaging, biophysical measurements and numerical simulations to reveal the forces that shape tissues. Steph has pioneered mechano-biological studies on inversion in the microalga Volvox and gastrulation in the cephalochordate Amphioxus.
Paula is a plant geneticist and a professor in horticulture at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is interested in understanding genetic mechanisms of plant development as well as evolution of the intriguing morphological diversity and geometric regularity of plants. Her work combines molecular level studies with targeted functional studies, imaging, and computational modeling. Her specific focus is on spatio-temporal patterning of meristems that guide the diversity of flowers and inflorescences, playing a key role in plant productivity and adaptation. Her work over the years has contributed on establishing a common ornamental crop gerbera as an evo-devo model for the large Asteraceae (sunflower) plant family.
Yann is a "physio-genomicist" based in Rennes, Brittany, France. He works at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE), where he uses molecular and genomics approaches to investigate the evolution of sex determination and sex differentiation mechanisms in fish. Yann combines genomics and large-scale whole genome sequencing projects with functional and expression-based approaches to explore the evolution of sex chromosomes and master sex determination genes. Yann is widely recognized in the fish community for his contributions to the endocrinology of gonadal sex differentiation, the evolution of sex determination systems, and the discovery of an unusual sex determining gene in salmonid species.