Honorable Forum: Again I would like to reemphasize the point that ecology/biology is THE Missing Link in culture in general and academia in particular. Will it ever be understood by ecologists that even they are connected to everything else, and if they want broad support it is up to them to carry the message far and wide?
WT ----- Original Message ----- From: "Isabelle Olivieri" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 2:46 AM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Petition for Evolutionary Biology in the Netherlands Dear Colleagues, I would like yo bring to your attention the following situation. Because of reorganization in some Dutch Universities and money cutting in research, several colleagues from Leiden University will be fired by the end of the year if we do not react. They might be fired anyway, but I think that we should at least do our best for this not to happen. The following evolutionary biologists will be fired or will not be able to continue their research: Jacques van Alphen (Marie Curie professor of Excellence), Tom Van Dooren, Frietson Galis (president of the European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology), Sacha Gultyaev, Patsy Haccou (Executive vice-president of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology), Ken Kraaijeveld, Femmie Kraaijeveld, Hans Metz (retired, but still very active) Rino Zandee. People in Leiden have just set up a petition, which you will find here : <http://evodevo.eu/petition/>http://evodevo.eu/petition/ I strongly encourage you to sign this petition, which will be sent to every person in the Netherland government who might be able to do something. I think it is quite incredible that Darwins'year will see an entire and excellent department of evolutionary ecology close down and leave people without a job (even those with a "permanent" job!) because of budget restrictions. As written in the petition, although evolutionary biology will be heavily cut, molecular biology will be spared. This is part of an alarming national trend. Unfortunately, with growing creationism in Europe, and budget cuttings elsewhere (including, alas! France) I am afraid the Dutch trend will soon become international. Please react ASAP ! Isabelle Olivieri President of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology 2007-2009 Université Montpellier 2, cc 65 Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution (ISEM, UMR 5554) Place Eugène Bataillon 34095 Montpellier cedex 05 Tel. 33 (0)4 67 14 37 50 Fax 33 (0)4 67 14 36 22 Portable 33 (0)6 86 43 19 45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.9/1902 - Release Date: 1/19/2009 9:37 AM
