The Center for Computational and Evolutionary Biology (CCEB) has received its official launch on August 23, 2007 in the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by a Symposium on Statistical Analysis in Genetics and Evolution and a celebrating party.

Mr. Guoying Xiang, vice president of Beijing Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, issued the appointment certificate to Professor Ziheng Yang, FRS from the University College London, who has been nominated as the Director of CCEB. Professor Deyuan Hong, Director of Department of Life Sciences，National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Professor Yonglong Lu, Director of Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Le Kang, Director of Bureau of Life Sciences & Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, attended the event.

In the succeeded Symposium on Statistical Analysis in Genetics and Evolution, five scientists from different research areas were invited to give lectures, including Prof. Ziheng Yang (“Coalescent models and estimation of ancestral hominoid population sizes”), Prof. Bruce Rannala (University of California Davis, USA, “Bayesian inference of phylogenetic trees”), Prof. Song Ge (Institute of Botany, CAS, “Phylogeny of rice genus and origin of cultivated rice: perspectives from phylogenomics and population genetics”), Prof. Jingdong Han (Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS, “Evolution of protein-protein interaction domains and its impact on organism and network complexity”), and Prof. Yi Tao (Institute of Zoology, CAS, “Stochastic fluctuations and ultrasensitivity in a protein synthetic cascade”).

Associate members of CCEB and over a hundred experts and postgraduate students from universities and CAS institutes participated the CCEB launch ceremony, the symposium and the celebrating party.