Tadeusz J. Kawecki Section Ecology & Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland Title Evolutionary Biology of Learning: Lessons from Drosophila Abstract The ability to learn is one of the top achievements of biological evolution. Although we have a good understanding of the benefits of learning, a number of important questions about the evolution of learning remain unanswered. How readily can a species evolve improved learning? What genetic, molecular, physiological or structural changes could mediate improved learning? Would such an improvement be associated with fitness costs, and what would they be? Does evolution act on "general intelligence", or do abilities to perform specific learning tasks evolve largely independently? How does learning affect evolution? We address these question by studying "in real time" evolutionary changes induced in experimental populations of fruit flies by exposing them to controlled selection regimes (experimental evolution).   CV Date of birth: 1 September 1966 Nationality: Polish Family status: Married, two children Academic qualifications MSc in Biology: 06.1990, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland PhD in Zoology: 10.1993, University of Basel, Switzerland Habilitation in Zoology: 08.2000, University of Basel, Switzerland Habilitation in Ecology and Evolution: 01.2003, University of Fribourg, Switzerland Current and past positions 10.2001 - present: Group leader, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland 07.98 - 09.01: Group leader, University of Basel, Switzerland 01.96 - 06.98: Research Associate, Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park, USA 12.93 - 12.95: Postdoctoral Researcher, Dept. of Ecology and Systematics, University of Helsinki, Finland Selected recent publications: Mery, F. and T. J. Kawecki 2005. A cost of long-term memory in Drosophila. Science 308: 1148-1148. Mery, F., and T. J. Kawecki. 2004. The effect of learning on experimental evolution of resource preference in Drosophila melanogaster. Evolution 58:757-767. Kawecki, T. J., and D. Ebert. 2004. Conceptual issues in local adaptation. Ecology Letters 7:1225-1241. Mery, F., and T. J. Kawecki. 2003. A fitness cost of learning ability in Drosophila melanogaster. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. 270:2465-2469. Mery, F., and T. J. Kawecki. 2002. Experimental evolution of learning ability in fruit flies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 99:14274-14279. Institution address: Tadeusz J. Kawecki Unit for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology University of Fribourg Chemin du Musee 10 CH-1700 Fribourg Switzerland phone +41 26 300 88 71 fax +41 26 300 96 98 tadeusz.kawecki@unifr.ch http://www.unifr.ch/biol/ecology/kawecki