Society for Experimental Biology
The Society for Experimental Biology is a learned society that was established in 1923 at Birkbeck College in London to "promote the art and science of experimental biology in all its branches". The society has an international membership of approximately 2500. It covers both plant and animal science from the cell to the environment. SEB has four sections: animal, plant, cell, and SEB+ (covering career development, equality and diversity, teaching and learning and science communication.
The main activities of the society are the organisation and sponsorship of scientific meetings, the publication of relevant research, and the promotion of development of experimental biologist through education, communication, and career development programmes.
The society organises one large meeting each year, plus a number of smaller meetings. The main meeting is held in the United Kingdom or continental Europe[1] and has up to 1000 attendees, with three plenary lectures (the Bidder, Woolhouse, and Cell Plenary Lectures) and nine parallel sessions.
Its publications include four peer-reviewed scientific journals:[2] the Journal of Experimental Botany published by Oxford University Press, The Plant Journal, published with Wiley-Blackwell, Plant Biotechnology Journal (co-owned with the Association of Applied Biologists and published by Wiley-Blackwell) and an open access journal established in 2013, Conservation Physiology (ISSN 2051-1434), published on behalf of the society by Oxford University Press.
The society is administered from its head office at Charles Darwin House in London with an additional office in Lancaster which hosts the management team of the Journal of Experimental Botany and the Society's Head of Education. It is funded through income from publications, investments, and member subscriptions.
References
Further reading
- Erlingsson, Steindór J., Institutions and innovation: experimental zoology and the creation of the British Journal of Experimental Biology and the Society for Experimental Biology, British Journal for the History of Science, 46(1): 72-95, 2013.
