Emergence and Detection of Life

A Joint Symposium of the Earth-Life Science Institute and CO world Project

New: Registration deadline extended to 8 December

Overview

Dates: Tuesday-Friday, 9-12 January 2024 (See below for detailed schedule)

Location: Earth-Life Science Institute and Digital Hall, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama Campus, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan (See below for detailed map)

Scientific Organizing Committee: Yuichiro Ueno (Chair), John Hernlund (Co-Chair), Eric Smith, Tony Jia, Yamei Li

Local Organizing Committee: Ryuhei Nakamura (Chair), Hidenori Genda, Harumi Tanaka, Shio Watanabe, Hiromi Daimon

Abstract of the Symposium: The search for biosignatures in deep time and space is fundamentally rooted in our desire to understand where we came from, and to discover our place in the universe. The Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) and the CO world Project (CWP) have taken the opportunity to hold a joint symposium in January 2024 to bring together our colleagues from Japan and around the world to delve into this topic and share the latest cutting edge work on this big topic.

Schedule

Tuesday 9 January (Symposium Day 1)

9:30-11:30 Optional Activity: Informal Coffee, Meet and Greet (Location: ELSI-1 2nd floor Agora)
10:00 Optional Activity: Tour of ELSI facilities (Departs from ELSI-1 2nd floor Agora)
13:30-14:00 Registration and Coffee (Location: Digital Hall)
14:00-14:15 Session 0: Introduction to the Symposium (Location: Digital Hall)
14:00-14:05 Welcome from the ELSI Director (Yasuhito Sekine)
14:05-14:15 Welcome from CO World Project Leader (Yuichiro Ueno)
14:15-15:15 Oral Session 1 (Location: Digital Hall)
14:15-14:45 Paul Falkowski (Rutgers University)
14:45-15:15 Ramanarayanan Krishnamurty (Scripps)
15:15-15:40 Coffee break
15:40-17:00 Oral Session 2 (Location: Digital Hall)
15:40-16:10 Shaunna Morrison (Carnegie Institute)
16:10-16:40 Maggie Lau (Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering, CAS)
16:40-17:00 Discussion
17:00 Closing of Day 1

Wednesday 10 January (Symposium Day 2)

9:00-11:00 Oral Session 3 (Location: Digital Hall)
9:00-9:25 Yuichiro Ueno (Tokyo Tech, ELSI)
9:25-9:55 Joseph Moran (ISIS, Univ. Strasbourg, Univ. Ottawa)
9:55-10:25 Nino Lauber (Univ. Vienna)
10:25-10:35 Coffee break
10:35-11:05 Martina Preiner (Max Planck)
11:05-11:30 Norio Kitadai (JAMSTEC)
11:30-13:30 Lunch (See Lunch Map Provided by ELSI Staff)
13:30-15:15 Oral Session 4 (Location: Digital Hall)
13:30-14:00 Tsuneomi Kawasaki (Tokyo Univ. Science)
14:00-14:30 Albert Fahrenbach (UNSW)
14:30-15:00 Discussion: How to initiate geometabolism?
15:00-15:20 Coffee Break
15:20-17:00 Oral Session 5
15:20-15:45 Shino Suzuki (JAXA/Riken) Early CO metabolisms and its link to geometabolism
15:45-16:10 Takashi Fujishiro (Saitama Univ.)
16:10-16:40 Sota Yagi (RIKEN) Experimental reconstruction of the evolutionary pathway bridging central dogma machinery via a missing-link fold
16:40-17:00 Discussion: Role of CO and connection to biology
17:00 Closing of Day 2

Thursday 11 January (Symposium Day 3)

9:00-11:30 Oral Session 6 (Location: Digital Hall)
9:00-9:15 Eric Smith (ELSI)
9:15-9:45 Loren Williams (Georgia Tech)
9:40-10:15 Dustin Schaeffer (UTSW)
10:15-10:30 Coffee Break
10:30-10:55 Luhua Lai (Peking Univ.)
10:55-11:20 Anton Petrov (Georgia Tech)
11:20-11:30 Discussion
11:30-13:30 Lunch (See Lunch Map Provided by ELSI Staff)
13:30-15:00 Oral Session 7 (Location: Digital Hall)
13:30-13:55 Naohiro Terasaka (ELSI)
13:55-14:20 Kosuke Fujishima (ELSI)
14:20-14:55 Liam Longo (ELSI)
14:55-15:10 Discussion
15:10-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-16:45 Oral Session 8 (Location: Digital Hall)
15:30-15:55 Emmanuel Levy (Weizmann Inst.)
15:55-16:20 Michael Lachmann (Santa Fe Institute)
16:20-16:45 Discussion
17:30-18:00 Cultural Event (Location: ELSI-1 Mishima Hall)
18:00-21:00 Symposium Banquet (Location: ELSI-1 2nd Floor Agora)

Friday 12 January (Symposium Day 4)

9:00-11:30 Poster session (Location: ELSI Agora)
9:10-11:30 Coffee served at posters
11:30-13:30 Lunch (See Lunch Map Provided by ELSI Staff)
13:30-15:00 Oral Session 9 (Location: ELSI Agora)
13:30-14:00 Cole Mathis (Arizona State University)
14:00-14:30 Wei Lin (Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
14:30-15:00 Donato Giovannelli (University of Napoli)
15:00-15:15 Coffee Break
15:15-16:50 Panel Discussion (Location: ELSI Agora) Shaunna Morrison
16:50-17:00 Closing of the Symposium (Location: ELSI)

Location/Access

Please refer to the Google Map below for detailed locations.

Oral sessions and discussions will be held at Digital Hall, near the entrance of the campus close to Ookayama Station.
Pre-Registration, Facility Tour, Banquet, and Poster Session will be held at the ELSI Agora in the ELSI-1 building (2nd floor).
Hotels that ELSI will recommend to host visitors are also indicated on the map below.

Registration

All attendees are requested to fill the following registration form, this will (1) tell us how to list your name and affiliation for your badge, (2) inform us whether you will attend the banquet so that we know how much food and drink to order, (3) allow you to submit an abstract, and (4) give you an opportunity to inform us about any special needs or assistance you may require. There is no registration fee for this event (although there will be a separate charge to attend the optional banquet).

Note 1: The deadline for registration and abstract submission is 30 November 2023 8 December 2023 (extended).

Note 2: if your browser is having difficulty rendering this embedded registration form below, please click here to go directly to the registration form.

Poster Information

Our poster sessions are lively and active events, and an integral part of the symposium. Please submit an abstract via the registration form by 8 December 2023. Poster display boards and necessary attachment hardware will be provided. Our poster boards are optimized for A0 size in portrait orientation (841mm wide × 1189mm tall).

Symposium Banquet

We will hold our symposium banquet from 18:00-21:00 on Thirsday 11 January in the ELSI Agora. A variety of food and drinks will be provided. Note that we cannot use institutional funds for this kind of event, and we kindly request a banquet fee from attendees in order to cover costs.

Symposium Survey

Exit Survey: The post-symposium survey link will be posted after 11 January 2024. We appreciate your effort to tell us what you liked about your experience at the symposium, this will be used to help us better plan future events.

Code of Conduct

Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. All event attendees and staff have the right to a space that is free of all forms of discrimination, harassment, bullying, and/or retaliation. Participants who are requested to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately. If you wish to report harassment, suspect that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the organizing committee as soon as possible.