SMBE 2020 | 28 June - 2 JULY 2020
Québec City, Canada

New COVID-19 and SMBE2020 Statement

Dear All,

I am writing to let you know that we have decided to cancel SMBE 2020 due to concerns about COVID19. The wellbeing of our communities is always the most important consideration. Please join me in thanking an outstanding local organizing committee in Québec City, particularly Nadia Aubin-Horth and Christian Landry. We hope to see you at a future SMBE meeting. 

We will provide more details on refund process in the near future. In the meantime, be well wherever you are. 

With best wishes,

Marta L. Wayne
President, SMBE

Save The Date!

28 June – 2 July 2020
Québec City, Canada

It is our great pleasure to invite you to the SMBE 2020 Meeting that will take place in beautiful Québec City, Canada. The meeting will be held at the Convention Centre.

Key Dates

9 September 2019

Call for Symposia

10 October 2019

Deadline for Symposia Proposals

W/C 18 November 2019

Call for Abstracts

20 January 2020

Deadline for Abstracts

1 April 2020

Early Bird Deadline

28 June - 2 July 2020

SMBE 2020

Keynote Speakers

Naama Barkai

Weizmann Institute, Israel

Jesse Bloom

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, United States

Mary Gehring

MIT, United States

Jun Kitano

National Institute of Genetics, Japan

Marta Wayne

University of Florida, United States

Welcome Letter

We would like to welcome you to Québec City for the 2020 annual Conference of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, which will be from June 28th to July 2nd 2020. The meeting will be held in one of the most beautiful cities in North America. It will be hosted at the Québec Convention center, which is within walking distance of the Old City, most tourist attractions, hotels, and some of the best restaurants in Canada. The convention center offers state of the art facilities that will allow an inclusive and accessible meeting.

The conference will open with the first plenary lecture on Sunday June 28th and will be followed by a welcome reception. The three other plenary talks, including the Nei lecture, will take place on Monday and Tuesday morning, and Thursday afternoon  before the closing award ceremony. These lectures will cover the most exciting topics of interest to the membership of SMBE, including evolutionary systems biology, quantitative models of molecular evolution informed by experiments, the epigenetics of gene regulation and the origin and maintenance of genetic variation in populations . The meeting will also feature parallel symposia, which will be selected from proposals to be received in the Fall of 2019. Two poster sessions will take place Monday and Tuesday nights. The Tuesday morning session will be dedicated to the Fitch symposium, one of the most distinctive sessions of the SMBE conferences, which features work from the latest generation of SMBE trainees. The seated conference banquet will be hosted at Le Manège militaire Voltigeurs de Québec, one of Canada’s national historic sites, which is located on the spectacular Plains of Abraham, one of the most important sites of Canadian history.    

We are excited to commit to making this meeting inclusive for all participants, with travel grants, career grants, a code of conduct, and a commitment to accessibility at all events.

We are looking forward to hearing about your most recent and exciting work in molecular biology and evolution,

The local organizing committee,

Christian Landry, Université Laval Louis Bernatchez, Université Laval Gertraud Burger, Université de Montréal
Nadia Aubin-Horth, Université Laval Franz Lang, Université de Montréal France Dufresne, Université du Québec à Rimouski

Reasons to Attend

  • Most recent and exciting findings in Molecular Biology and Evolution and in Genome Biology
  • Awards are available to financially support attending the meeting for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for postdoctoral members of the Society
  • Work-life balance support through affordable daycare on site and career awards to support travel and care of dependents.
  • Visit one of the most beautiful cities in North America bustling with culture, history and beauty
  • Québec City is unique and strategically located in Eastern North America. It is connected to the world by the Jean Lesage International Airport.

Contact Us

General queries

Registration & Accommodation queries