The Origin and Persistence of Species

The Gordon Research Conference on Speciation is the world's largest conference focused on speciation research and is dedicated to integration, synthesis, and bridge-building between a diversity of directions, systems and approaches in modern speciation research. The 2023 Speciation GRC will build on these themes and further expand the sphere of speciation research. In particular, speciation research until now has largely focused on identifying the isolating mechanisms that promote the origin of new species. Despite many recent advances, this largely microevolutionary research program has failed to explain macroevolutionary patterns of species diversity. Thus, an emerging theme is that a complete understanding of speciation requires the identification of the mechanisms that promote the persistence of species. Addressing these questions requires new expertise and approaches from fields that have not traditionally been at the core of speciation research. The 2023 Speciation GRC will engage both emerging and established leaders in these fields to promote a further synthesis of the traditional and modern views of the mechanisms that promote both the origin and persistence of species.