The annual Geobiology Symposium is a one-day event taking place each year on the last Friday of February or a nearby date either at the University of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, or another institution. The symposium brings together paleontologists, paleobiologists, geobiologists, and geomicrobiologists from the Mid-Atlantic region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, and northern Virginia). Participants present new ideas or results and profit from the questions and constructive criticism of their colleagues because about half the time is devoted to discussions. The challenging intellectual climate draws 30-50 participants each year. The annual symposia have led to research co-operations and proposals, and have in general aided the paleontology-geobiology community in their intellectual life and vigor.

     The first symposium was held in 1990 under the name ‘Paleobiology Symposium.’ As the science evolved the name was changed to ‘Geobiology Symposium.’ The symposium has been held every Spring except for three years. That is the reason that in 2020 we organized the 27th Geobiology Symposium. It was the first time geomicrobiology was included. During the afternoon session a discussion was included about the future of the symposium. The conclusion was that late February is the best time to hold the symposium and that colleagues from other institutions than the two original ones might be interested in organizing a symposium as part of the rotational system in the future.

Ileana Pérez-Rodríguez, ileperez [ at ] sas.upenn.edu
Hermann Pfefferkorn, hpfeffer [ at ] sas.upenn.edu

Below is the 2020 Symposium program including three photographs of the event.

Following that is a sample program from 2014 with photographs from two other years.