CSZ 2026 ottawa
The local organizing committee is delighted to be hosting the 65th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Zoologists in Ottawa.
The meeting will take place May 11th to 14th, 2026 at Carleton University on the traditional, unceded territories of the Algonquin nation.
The annual meeting includes:
Oral Presentation Award Competitions featuring finalists for society-wide student (William S. Hoar) and PDF (Presidents’) awards.
Award lectures from the winners of this year’s T. W. M. Cameron Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award, Robert G. Boutilier New Investigator Award and F. E. J. Fry Medal.
Symposia and section meetings for our society sections: Comparative Morphology, Development & Biomechanics (CMDB), Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (CPB), Integrative Ecology and Evolution (IEE), and Parasitism, Immunity and Environment (PIE).
Contributed sessions and poster presentations: students can apply to section-specific student oral and poster presentation prizes and our society wide awards. This includes the Mick Burt and A. Murray Fallis awards for the best student poster and oral presentations in the PIE section, the Cas C. Lindsey Prize for the best student presentation (oral or poster) in the IEE section, the Brian K. Hall award for the best oral presentation on a topic in CMDB, the George F. Holeton Prize for the most outstanding CPB student poster, the Helen I. Battle award for the best overall student poster at the annual meeting and the William S. Hoar award for the best overall student talk at the annual meeting.
Networking events including a Welcome Reception, Trainee Networking Mixer, Section lunches, and our closing Banquet.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 CSZ Science Outreach Award!
The Detwiler Lab @ UManitoba
Our outreach team’s mission has been to highlight parasite species diversity, their strange and complicated life cycles, and their importance to human health (locally and globally). Over the course of 3 years, the outreach team has included Steven Ajibi (BSc), Ness Dalling (BSc), Amy Gudmundson (BSc), Cameron Hodinka (MSc), Lena Klassen (BSc), Sidney Mann (MSc), Audrey Moizan (PhD), Valeria Pobirohin (MSc), Joshita Sehgal (MSc), Leena Tetrault (BSc), Trina White (BSc), Aden Tobin (BSc) as well as Dr. Jillian Detwiler (University of Manitoba), Dr. Olwyn Friesen (Department of Fisheries and Oceans), and Dr. Charlene Berkvens (Assiniboine Park Conservancy). We developed different sets of microscope demonstrations and hands-on activities to engage people in the most common symbiosis on Earth – parasitism! Our team connected with over 600 people including Indigenous undergraduates, middle-school children, and the public. We included eye-catching, memorable specimens like a rodent whose body cavity was overtaken by larval tapeworms. We emphasized weird and disturbing feats like nematode eggs being stuck to >50% of bills in a study in Nigeria. Further, we published a subset of our activities in the Qubes Education Resources, an open education resource, to more broadly disseminate our work and aid others in conducting outreach. We haven’t been asked to birthday parties yet – but we look forward to continuing outreach and providing more students with opportunities to develop their science communication skills.
