Workshops and Events
There will be a range of events associated with this year's Progressive Palaeontology meeting.
Pre-conference event - Great micro-ancestors: the overlooked beginners of life on Earth
There will be an evening of talks by the researchers from UK Centre for Astrobiology on June 17th 2024. This event will be hosted in the James Clerk Maxwell Building. This event is free for conference delegates. The event will include talks from Dr Sean McMahon, Dr Corentin Loron, and Dr Pamela Knoll, and PhD students Beilei Hua, Edwin Rodriguez Dzul, and Mia Frothingham. The talks will be followed by a microfossil workshop. This workshop is capped at 40 spaces. If you would like to attend this event, please sign up at registration as spaces will go quickly.
Workshops
This year’s ProgPal is offering conference delegates the choice of three workshops which will take place on the first day of the conference (June 18th). As spaces for workshops are limited, delegates will only have the option to sign up to one workshop (i.e. one of the following events: the Palaeobotanical Peels Workshop; the Field Skills - Jacketing Workshop; or the National Museums Collections Centre Tour).
Palaeobotanical Peels
This workshop will endeavour to educate attendees about the cellulose acetate peel technique and give them the opportunity to produce their own from Carboniferous plant fossils. Cellulose acetate peels are a widely used technique in palaeobotany to study permineralised fossils in cellular detail. You will also hear how the Molecular Palaeobotany and Evolution Group at Edinburgh has used peels and other preparatory techniques to study Devonian and Carboniferous plants to build an understanding of the early evolution of major plant groups. There will be two sessions with 20 people per session. Thus, this workshop is capped at 40 spaces. If you would like to attend this workshop, please sign up at registration as spaces will go quickly.
Field Skills - Jacketing
This workshop focuses on developing a vital transferable skill for field palaeontology: plaster jacketing. Attendees will receive a short informative talk on the theory, process, and logistics of preparing a specimen for jacketing, using diverse case studies from the UK and abroad. You will learn how to tailor your jacketing to ensure the safety of fossils, followed by a demonstration before having a go yourselves. This will be a fun, hands-on session where you will get to work directly with plaster to jacket mystery (non-fossil) material in small groups, so please come prepared to get a bit messy! There will be two sessions with 20 people per session. Thus, this workshop is capped at 24 spaces.Thus, this workshop is capped at 40 spaces. If you would like to attend this workshop, please sign up at registration as spaces will go quickly.
National Museums Collections Centre
This tour of the collections centre of National Museums Scotland in Granton will show you a behind-the-scenes look into the research and innovation that occurs in Edinburgh. This tour will be hosted by museum staff that can answer all your questions. Please visit the collections website for an insight into what you can expect from this tour. There will be two sessions with 12 people per session. Thus, this workshop is capped at 24 spaces. If you would like to attend this workshop, please sign up at registration as spaces will go quickly.
Icebreakers
We will be hosting an icebreaker event on the evening of Day 1 (June 18th). The icebreaker event is an opportunity for delegates to network and socialise in an informal event. The icebreaker event will include a pub quiz where both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages will be available. The location of this event is still being confirmed and once it has been established, we will announce the location on our social media and the ProgPal website.
Annual dinner
The annual dinner will take place on the evening of Day 2 (June 19th) at Montpeliers in Bruntsfield. The dinner will have a set menu which will be made available closer to the date. The cost of the dinner will be £27.50 per person. Please inform us of your dietary requirements so that we can ensure that the restaurant can cater to them.
Auction and Awards
We will be holding an auction and presenting awards for best poster and best talk at the end of the final talk session before the annual dinner. More information will be provided soon.
Field Trip
Details to be confirmed, please check back later!
