Just what the headline says: early registration for The Fourth International Volvox Conference ends May 19^th. After that, prices go up $100 for everybody. The registration fees sound a bit steep (up to $650), but when you consider that they include meals, lodging, and transportation between the hotel and the conference, they’re not bad at all:

Faculty with single occupancy room (3 nights): $650
Faculty with double occupancy room (3 nights): $550
Faculty with no hotel stay: $400
Postdoc/student with single occupancy room (3 nights): $550
Postdoc/student with double occupancy room (3 nights): $450
Postdoc/student with no hotel stay: $300

Compare that to another recent four-day conference, the 2^nd ASM Conference on Experimental Microbial Evolution, at $785: that’s just registration, not including hotel or meals.

If you are or want to be part of the Volvox research community, or if you just have an interest in the evolution of multicellularity, cellular differentiation, or sex, I can’t recommend this meeting highly enough. It’s small enough that there are no concurrent sessions, everyone who wants to give a talk can (at least, that’s been the case in the past), and there are plenty of opportunities to interact with everyone. It’s big enough, though, that most of the major players in the Volvox world will be there (again, based on past experience).