Rigi Workshop 2027: Unlocking Natural History Collections

Unlocking Natural History Collections

This workshop will allow participants to interact with established researchers who make innovative use of natural history collections and collection-derived data to address questions in phylogenetics, macroevolution, retrospective genetics, and global change biology. Participants will be exposed to high-impact research projects that (1) encourage the creative and rigorous use of collections in their own work, and (2) highlight key caveats and challenges associated with collection-based research. For example, museomics is reshaping our understanding of biodiversity by leveraging the vast reservoir of preserved historical specimens, while cutting-edge imaging techniques are transforming the study of fossils and revealing deep insights into the origins of extant biodiversity. In addition, participants will take part in hands-on workshops focused on tools and approaches for working effectively with collections and addressing associated challenges. Overall, the workshop will provide a comprehensive understanding of natural history collections and their applications across ecology, evolution, and organismal biology.

Objectives:

1. To learn on how new technologies and omics approaches have enhanced our abilities to further explore long-standing biological questions about the diversity and evolution of life.
2. To meet established researchers and curators with different perspectives and background about the use of Natural history collection
3. To practice on how and where information and metadata from specimens can be retrieved or submitted.
4. To reflect on how the participant could further benefit, but also enrich, Natural history collection with inspiring use cases.

Disciplines addressed:

Systematics/taxonomy · Museomics-DNA · Macroevolution · Comparative biology · Paleontology · Evolution of shapes · Paleoecology · Museomics · Metabolomics · Conservation genetics · Biodiversity assessment/monitoring · Ecology · Global change biology

Speakers:

Dr Nadir Alvarez - Naturéum, State Museum of Natural Sciences, Lausanne
Dr Inés Carrasquer Puyal - University of Bern
Dr Jean-Luc Gattolliat - Naturéum, State Museum of Natural Sciences, Lausanne
Dr Alessia Guggisberg - ETH Zurich
Prof Alexandra Houssaye - National Natural History Museum, Paris, FR.
Dr Emmanuel Toussaint - Natural History Museum of Geneva
Dr Jurriaan de Vos – University of Basel

Organisers:

Dr Loïc Costeur (Natural History Museum Basel)
Dr Juriaan de Vos (University of Basel)
Dr Jean-Luc Gattolliat (Naturéum Vaud)
Dr Mathieu Perret (Botanical Garden Geneva)
Dr Emmanuel Toussaint (Natural History Museum Geneva)
Caroline Reymond (Platform Biology, SCNAT)

Registrations

The registration fee is CHF 150.− and includes housing and meals in double room (or CHF 205.− in single room). Please register online and submit your abstract of research and a short letter of motivation by 15 October 2025. The organising committee will select up to 30 out-standing applicants.

Application Form

The application form is not open yet. It will be available around mid-August and it will be open until octobre 15th 2026.