The United States National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) is a scientific research center in Durham, North Carolina. Known by its acronym NESCent (which rhymes with “crescent”), the center’s goal is to promote collaborative, cross-disciplinary research in evolutionary biology.
NESCent offers a range of fellowships for visiting scientists and educators and sponsors numerous scientific meetings each year. In its first 7 years, NESCent hosted nearly 4,200 visitors from more than 50 countries. Sponsored projects span the fields of systematics, paleontology, molecular evolution, phylogeography, comparative biology, evolutionary genetics, population biology and functional morphology, among others.
