The World’s Largest Community of Ecologists
We are a society because of our members. Hailing from 84 countries, hundreds of institutions, representing scientists working in all career sectors, our 7,848 members in 2022 represented a nice recovery from a pandemic-driven drop in participation, with more growth sure to follow as we make good on the momentum we started to build in 2019-20.
Notably, we are becoming a more diverse organization. Participation in ESA by BIPOC ecologists increased in all categories over 2021, as it did for gender non-conforming members. The share of membership that identifies as female was largely unchanged (~43%), but remains on a long-term positive growth trajectory, with women holding the majority among student and early career membership sectors. This is likewise reflected in our leadership—the Governing Board for FY22 included 10 women and only 1 man—even among the sections and chapters, which have led on providing leadership opportunities to under-represented ecologists, as well as funding support. We even increased our membership among non-U.S. members; driven by the 2022 Annual Meeting being held in Montreal, we saw a marked increase in international participation, especially among Canadian members (the Canada Chapter grew by 50%).
Last year also saw the full implementation of the Society’s new governance structure following two years of work by member leaders. After new bylaws were enacted in 2021, emphasis shifted to broadening participation by members in leadership, most notably by moving responsibilities to the ESA Council and making it a representative body.
The World’s Largest Gathering of Ecologists
The 2022 Annual Meeting saw 3,400+ attendees for six days of leading ecological science, professional development and networking, powered by our staff and a small army of 101 student volunteers. All told, 3,250 total abstracts were submitted (with a record number of latebreaking posters for an in-person event), while we held:
- 284 contributed oral sessions
- 49 organized oral sessions
- 42 workshops
- 23 symposia
- 23 short courses
Attendees were also treated to dozens of networking events spread throughout the week, including a large opening reception and refreshments during the daily poster sessions in the exhibit hall. The several dozen exhibitors included universities and other educators, publishers, instrument companies, nonprofits and more than 20 of our sections and chapters.
Society Ethics in 2022
ESA’s Professional Ethics Committee oversees maintaining and enforcing ESA Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for ESA Events. For transparency, they also provide an annual report of activities to the Council, which is published in the ESA Bulletin.
ESA offers several tools to file ethics and misconduct reports, including anonymous reporting. In 2022, ESA received 12 reports of seven unique incidents of potential Code of Conduct violations. All of these were filed just before, during or immediately following the Annual Meeting in Montreal. Whenever possible, ESA senior staff handle complaints about behavior at the meeting on site. All reports were investigated and handled following the ESA complaint process.