Formation of a New Society, ISGEC, The International Society for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation

[David Goldberg <deg@illigal.ge.uiuc.edu>]

A few weeks ago, the boards of the International Society for Genetic
Algorithms (ISGA) and the Genetic Programming Conference organization
voted to permanently merge and form the International Society for
Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (ISGEC).  The new society will
permanently bring together the oldest society in the field of
evolutionary computation (ISGA) as well as the two largest conferences
in the field.  The new society should help bring a greater sense of
unity, order, and inclusiveness to the growing field of genetic and
evolutionary computation.

The purpose of this letter is to briefly explain these recent changes
and to invite you to the first conference that will celebrate the new
society, the 2000 Genetic and Evolutionary Conference (GECCO-2000) to
be held July 8-12, 2000 (Saturday-Wednesday) in Las Vegas, Nevada
USA. GECCO-99 attracted 619 attendees.  We anticipate that GECCO-2000
will again be the place to personally talk with and hear the largest
group of researchers and practitioners in the field.  The paper
submission deadline for GECCO-2000 is January 26, 2000.

The new society is named to reflect our intention to embrace all
facets of our growing field, including genetic algorithms, genetic
programming, evolution strategies, evolutionary programming,
classifier systems, evolvable hardware, and emerging areas including
(but not limited to) immune system learning, DNA and molecular
computing, ant optimization, evolutionary robotics, ECHO, Tierra, and
genetic scheduling. The new society and its annual GECCO conference
are dynamically structured so as to continuously and automatically
embrace new directions of research and new participants in the field.
The executive board of the new society brings together the preexisting
9-member board of the International Society for Genetic Algorithms
with six additional members (see list below). Its members will be
elected annually with staggered terms.  In addition, three new
councils have been established: the Council of Authors, the Council of
Editors, and the Council of Conferences.  These councils consist of
those who write full-length books, edit journals or books in the
field, and run conferences or workshops.  These councils should lead
to better coordination of conference schedules, advance the
intellectual state of our field, and increase the public visibility of
our field to the general scientific community.  Eligibility for
membership in the councils (which is voluntary) is spelled out in
detail in the ISGEC bylaws.  A list of those who have already signed
on to join these councils is found below.

ISGEC will be a formal membership society.  Special arrangements have
been negotiated to provide the two journals Evolutionary Computation
and Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines to all members as part
of their membership.  Society members will also get a significant
discount at society conferences and workshops, such as GECCO and FOGA.

The easiest and most cost-effective way to join the new ISGEC is to
plan to attend the 2000 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
Conference to be held in Las Vegas, NV, July 8-12, 2000
(Saturday-Wednesday).  The GECCO-2000 conference registration form
will have a check-off box for joining ISGEC.  Those who join will be
eligible for a deep discount on their conference registration fee.
The discount will be almost enough to pay for the dues themselves.
This, together with a subscription to two important journals in the
field, will be a very attractive offer.

Additional information about ISGEC will be available shortly at
www.isgec.org. Additional information about GECCO-2000 is at
www.genetic-algorithm.org. Come join us to celebrate the
establishment of the first formal membership organization that
embraces the whole field of genetic and evolutionary computation.

Sincerely,

David E. Goldberg
ISGEC Chair
deg@uiuc.edu

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ISGEC Executive Board
David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign (Chair)
David Andre, University of California - Berkeley
Wolfgang Banzhaf, University of Dortmund
Kalyanmoy Deb, Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur
Kenneth A. DeJong, George Mason University
Terence C. Fogarty, Napier University
Erik Goodman, Michigan State University
John H. Holland, University of Michigan
Hitoshi Iba, University of Tokyo
John R. Koza, Stanford University
Una-May O'Reilly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Marc Schoenauer, Ecole Polytechnique
Hans-Paul Schwefel, University of Dortmund
Lee Spector, Hampshire College
Darrell Whitley, Colorado State University

Council of Authors
(as of December 23, 1999)
David Andre
Vladan Babovic
Wolfgang Banzhaf
Forrest H Bennett III
Runwei Cheng
David A. Coley
Michael Conrad
Marco Dorigo
Rolf Drechsler 
Emanuel Falkenauer
Mitsuo Gen
Andreas Geyer-Schulz
David E. Goldberg
John H. Holland
Hitsoshi Iba
Christian Jacob
Robert E. Keller
John R. Koza
Dr. Sam Kwong 
Dirk C. Mattfeld
Zbigniew Michalewicz
Melanie Mitchell 
Frederick E. Petry
Liz Rudnick
Wallace K. S. Tang
Adrian Thompson
Michael D. Vose
Man Leung Wong

Council of Editors
(as of December 23, 1999)
Wolfgang Banzhaf
Peter J. Bentley
Lance D Chambers
Dipankar Dasgupta
Francisco Herrera
Eric Michielssen
Witold Pedrycz
Yahya Rahmat-Samii
Lee Spector
Jose L. Verdegay
Darrell  Whitley

Council of Conferences
(as of December 23, 1999)
Stefano Cagnoni (EvoIASP 2000)
David Corne (EvoTel 2000)
Terence C. Fogarty (FOGA 2000)
Cyril Fonlupt (Evolution Artificielle)
Takashi Gomi (ER 2000)
Kin Keung Lai (APGA-2000)
Pier Luca Lanzi (EvoRobot2000)
I.C. Parmee (ACDM IV) 
George D. Smith (EvoTel 2000)
Adrian Stoica (EH 99)