CPC 2022
29th Canadian Paleontology Conference
October 20-22nd, 2022
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VIRTUAL VENUE FORMAT
This year, for the first time, the annual CPC Conference will be held in a virtual format.
The meeting will be held over three days: Thursday, October 20th, Friday, October 21st and Saturday, October 22nd. The sessions will take place in the afternoon/evenings (5-7pm EDT / 2-4pm PDT), at times suitable for all Canadian time zones. There will be an evening session at 7pm EDT / 4pm PDT for on October 20th for socializing and sharing lab updates. It is the executive’s hope that restricting the meeting to a few hours a day over a few days will reduce 'Zoom fatigue' and give attendees a bit more flexibility in terms of attendance.
The abstract volume will be sent out to registrants as a PDF via email prior to the conference.
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Please make sure to check your time zone!
PLATFORMS
Oral presentation sessions and social events for CPC will be held via Zoom. Zoom is a free online teleconferencing platform that does not require participants to download anything to their personal computer. (For more information, see here: https://zoom.us/). A Zoom link will be provided to each registered attendee for the oral presentation sessions prior to the conference.
REGISTRATION AND ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
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**There is no conference registration fee for CPC 2022**
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Abstract submission is now closed. The deadline to register without submitting an abstract is October 18th, 2022. To register, please e-mail cpc2022abstract@gmail.com.
In your email, please indicate whether you wish to present an oral presentation or a poster (if applicable) and indicate if the speaker qualifies for consideration of the Thomas E. Bolton Award (best student talk award). In the email subject line, please write either ‘CPC 2022 Abstract’ or ‘CPC 2022 Registration’.
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ZOOM LINK
If you are registered, you will receive a Zoom invitation via email on or before October 19th. Clicking this Zoom invitation link (see Zoom 101 Guide) will direct you to all of the oral presentations, the Icebreaker, AGM, and the Awards ceremony.
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If you DO NOT receive a Zoom link by Wednesday, October 19th, 2022, or have any other questions or concerns, please email cpc2022abstract@gmail.com.
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ZOOM ETIQUETTE
When you ‘arrive’ in the session, you will be automatically muted. We ask that people remain muted while the presentations are taking place. At the end of each talk, there will be time for a few questions. During this time, you may either unmute yourself to ask the question, or type it into the textbox.
Do not record or take screen shots of presenter’s talks or their slides.
If you wish to have a copy of anything in a presenter’s talk or poster, you are encouraged to contact the author directly. Authors’ contact information can be found in the abstract volume.
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ABSTRACT FORMAT
Abstracts should be compiled in Word (.doc or .docx). They are to be no more than 250 words in length, written in size 12 font, and follow the traditional format (no figures and no citations/references). Figures may be included if desired, with a short figure caption.
Titles should contain no new scientific names, but higher taxonomic names may be included. Identify each author by their first name, in full, followed by any middle initials, and the last name. Identify each author with a superscript number and give the full mailing and email information for each author. Please identify the expected speaker of the oral presentation or poster with an asterix (*) next to their name.
Figures, if included, should be submitted separately in the same email as .TIF files (minimum resolution is 300 dpi, 600 dpi is preferred). Figures should be sized to fit into a single column (88.9 mm), two---thirds page width (122 mm), or full page width (182 mm). Maximum page height is 233 mm. Colour figures should use CMYK colour, not RGB.
TECHNICAL SESSIONS
Technical sessions will take place on Thursday, October 20th, Friday, October 21st and Saturday, October 22nd via Zoom. Each oral presentation will be allotted 12 minutes, plus 3 minutes for questions.
Oral presentations must be presented in a Powerpoint (.ppt or .pptx) or PDF (.pdf) format. When it is time to present, the presenter will be made a co-host by the session moderator, so that they are able to share their screen.
In order to ensure that all presenters are able to accept a role as co-host, share their screen appropriately, and be heard by participants, we ask all presenters to sign into the Zoom session 20 minutes before their session starts so that we can run a tech test.
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'ICEBREAKER' SOCIAL EVENT
CPC 2022 will host a virtual ‘icebreaker’ via Zoom event on Thursday, October 20th, beginning at 7 pm EDT. This is a chance for you to catch up with friends (or make some new ones!), do some networking, and talk research.
The exec is also planning some lighthearted fossil trivia, so put on your best paleo geek hats and plan to join us for an hour of fun and fellowship.
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PALEONTOLOGY DIVISION AGM
The Zoom link that gets you into the Technical (Talk) Sessions will also get you into the icebreaker event.
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As is customary at CPC, the Paleontology Division (PD) will be hosting its Annual General Meeting at the conference. It will take place on Friday, October 21st at 6:30pm (EDT). Attendance is not mandatory, but it is strongly recommended that PD members attend. Students interested in becoming apart of the Paleontology Division community are also encouraged to attend.
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CPC 2022 SCHEDULE
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AWARDS
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Thomas E. Bolton Award (Best Student Talk)
The Paleontology Division of the Geological Association of Canada gives an award to acknowledge excellence in paleontological research by a student through their paper presentation at the Canadian Paleontology Conference. The first of the Thomas E. Bolton Awards was presented in 1998 at the Eighth Canadian Paleontology Conference in Collingwood, Ontario.
The award has been named in honor of Tom Bolton. Just a few weeks after being awarded the Billings Medal, Thomas Elwood Bolton passed away on November 21st, 1997. The medal, named after the Geological Survey of Canada’s first paleontologist, was a fitting tribute to a man who had dedicated his life to the furtherance of geology and paleontology. The citation for the medal included the statement that “No individual has done more for Canadian paleontology than Tom Bolton”.
Tom’s lifelong career with the GSC began in 1952. His research covered a remarkable diversity of Ordovician and Silurian organisms including trilobites, eurypterids, corals, brachiopods, crinoids, cystoids, bryozoans, sponges, nautiloids, gastropods and pelecypods. Not only was Tom an acknowledged authority in his field, he was Curator of the National Collection of Type Invertebrate and Plant Fossils for over 30 years. He left a legacy of eight volumes of the Catalogue of Type Fossil Invertebrates and one Catalogue of Type Plant Fossils. These provide data on over 130,000 specimens collected from the days of Sir William Logan in the last century to 1993.
The hallmarks of Tom’s work were cheerful involvement, modesty, effectiveness, and a willingness to involve others. His enthusiasm for paleontology was contagious, and he delighted in talking to those who shared his passion whether they were “professional” paleontologists or not. If you liked fossils, Tom would share his knowledge with you. It is appropriate that the award for paleontological research by a student is named in his honour.
All students who present their research at CPC 2022 can be considered for the Thomas E. Bolton award. If you are eligible and would like to be considered, please ensure you indicate this in your abstract submission.
Avocational Paleontologist Award (NEW!)
Great discoveries are made, and great things are done, by people who have no formal training in paleontology but who are passionate about ancient life, fossils, and the preservation of fossil sites. Whether it is donating a fossil collection to an institution, protecting and/or maintaining a site of paleontological importance, volunteering in fossil prep or outreach, or fundraising to build a fossil museum, avocational palaeontologists play a huge role in the Canadian palaeontology community.
The PD Division has created a new award to recognizes the role of avocational paleontology in Canada. This new, yet unnamed, award will recognize and celebrate the contributions of non-professional paleontologists to the field, helping to send the message that avocational palaeologists of are all ages are important and valued. The new Avocational Paleontologist Award will be the fourth award offered by the Division, along with the Billings Medal for Lifetime Achievement, the Pikaia Award for Early Career Researchers, and the Thomas E. Bolton Award for an exceptional student presentation at CPC. The awards will be offered in a three-year cycle, excepting the Bolton Award which will be awarded annually at CPC.
Nominations for the 1st Avocational Paleontologist Award are now closed.