The joint Annual Meeting between the Society for Mathematical Biology and the European Society for Mathematical Biology at Heidelberg has been postponed. However, the Board of Directors of the Society for Mathematical Biology has decided to organize a virtual meeting, eSMB 2020, between August 17-20, 2020. The meeting will be held between 8.30 am and 5.00 pm US Eastern Time Zone to maximize the participation of people across the world.

We are inviting all the SMB Subgroup to organize a Mini-symposium, Poster Section and invite a Keynote Speaker. Independent submission for oral or poster presentations will also be accepted. The eSMB 2020 organizing committee will identify the plenary speakers for the annual meeting, and will organize a Mini-symposium and a Poster Session outside the scope of the SMB Subgroups.

While COVID-19 continues spreading across the world, the Society for Mathematical Biology is keeping the health and safety of our members as our top priority. To reduce or slow the spread of infection, we will hold our 2020 Annual Meeting virtually between August 17-20, 2020. We acknowledge that many are facing challenging personal and/or professional circumstances, but we hope that our Virtual Annual Meeting will allow our community to stay connected, share research, and support each other.

* all times are listed in US Eastern Time Zone. This schedule is tentative and subject to change.

Carl Bergstrom

University of Washington, @CT_Bergstrom


Shayn Peirce-Cottler

University of Virginia, @PeirceLab

Alicia Prieto Langarica

Youngstown State University, @AliciaPL25


David Ho

Columbia University




Robert Insall

University of Galsgow, @robinsall


Priyanga Amarasekare

University of California Los Angeles




Andrea Bild

City of Hope, @AndreaBildLab


Adam Martin

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, @martinlabmit


Sue Ann Campbell

University of Waterloo


Deirdre Hollingsworth

Oxford Big Data Institute, @DeirdreHoll

At the same time, we are excited that the 2020 Annual Meeting will be the inaugural SMB Virtual Meeting. Our communities have long been leaders in sharing research online, and this opportunity is another significant step in that direction. The Society has selected a third-party virtual meeting platform (Sococo and MathDept.org) that seamlessly supports live video presentations of sessions, recording of and technical support for those sessions, pre-recorded talks, poster sessions, networking and socializing. The site also will allow small groups of participants to interact in real-time directly with each other.

The Society for Mathematical Biology is waiving registration fees for our first virtual annual meeting. You must still register for the meeting through the registration website, for a $25 fee. You can support the dissemination of research and education at the interface between the mathematical and biological sciences by a small gift of $25 to partially cover the third-party virtual platform cost for your participation. You can make a bigger impact for young mathematical biologists with two other registration options. You can give $50 to support your participation and the participation of a young mathematical biologist at this meeting. Alternatively, you can give $100 to partially support a society travel award to help a student participate at our 2021 Annual Meeting.

The COVID-19 pandemic is seriously impacting the finances of research and higher education, and academic societies. We need your help, because every young mathematical biologist requires our support and the opportunity to participate in our annual meetings. Thank you for considering joining us in this Virtual Annual Meeting, and your support for mathematical biology.

If you are interested in attending certain talks, but do not want to participate in the full conference, please indicate so in the registration form. We will ensure that you receive Zoom links for conference talks, but will not register you in the Sococo platform. Since SMB will be paying approximately $25 for each registrant's Sococo access, it is helpful for us to know ahead of time if you do not intend to use the platform.

If you are submitting an abstract that is not affiliated with an SMB subgroup, please do so in the registration form. If you would like to submit an abstract affiliated with an SMB subgroup, please contact your subgroup chair(s).

The mentoring workshop will be held the day before the e-conference on Sunday August 16, 2020 from 1:00 - 5:00 PM for the US Eastern Time Zone. If you have not yet registered for the mentoring workshop, you may do so by contacting John Nardini at jtnardin@ncsu.edu. This workshop will consist of the following speakers and talks:

* all times are listed in US Eastern Time Zone. This schedule is tentative and subject to change.