The 2013 Gordon Conference on Microbial Population Biology will present cutting-edge research on the evolutionary biology of microbial populations and communities. The Conference will feature a wide range of topics, such as experimental evolution, evolutionary medicine, environmental microbiology, mathematical theory, astrobiology, microbiomes and systems biology. Invited speakers represent a variety of scientific disciplines, including genomics, phylogenetics, industrial applications, biochemistry, molecular ecology and genetics, structural biology and synthetic biology. The Conference will bring together a collection of investigators who are at the forefront of their fields, and will provide opportunities for junior scientists and graduate students to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. Some poster presenters will be selected for short talks. The Conference features programmed discussion sessions as well as opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, providing an avenue for interactions among scientists from different disciplines and for cross-disciplinary collaborations in the various research areas represented.