Course info
Genomic Selection in Livestock
June 21-25, 2015 (Course start on SUNDAY at 2 pm!!)
in Davos, Switzerland (www.davos.ch)
Social event depending on weather conditions likely on Friday June 26 (something like a hike and barbecue…), i.e. after the course.
Course details
Lessons from 8:30am - 12pm and 1.30 pm - 5 pm, on the first day (Sunday) we start at 2pm
Lunch at 12am, coffee breaks at 10 am and 3 pm
Lunch and coffee breaks are included in the course fee, breakfast is usually included in your accomodation package that you are going to book yourself (see below) and dinner is on your own.
The course location is Hotel Shima, Dischmastrasse 63, Davos Dorf, about 1 km (0.6 mi) outside the city centre.
The course is scheduled to end on Thursday at 5 pm, please plan to leave on Friday, or alternatively, you may want to stay the weekend and may get better rates at the hotel. Most hotel offer special deals when you stay 7 nights, just ask.
Complete your registration
The course fee is Swiss Francs 850 / EUR 815 / USD 890.
Bank: Credit-Suisse, Davos, Switzerland, Clearing Number 4835
Account number (IBAN): CH47 0483 5136 0212 0100 1
Account Holder: agn Genetics GmbH, Davos, Switzerland
An invoice is attached to this mail. Please make sure all transaction fees are paid by your institution.
Accommodation
There are currently 12 participants registered. The course will be held at the small hotel "Shima" in Davos (www.shima-davos.ch, unfortunately only in german, but the manager speaks english, e-mail is info@shima-davos.ch). The hotel has 10 double rooms available. The price for single occupancy is CHF 95 per night&person or CHF 75 per night&person based on double occupancy. If you want to book with the hotel Shima, you need to send e-mail to info@shima-davos.ch and indicate, that you are a course participant. The course location is about 15-20 minutes walk from the centre of the village. Crime is not a problem in Davos, so walking back even at night is possible. Bus service to the hotel stops about at 7 pm. Note that you will get a free bus pass included in your accomodation package with all hotel bookings in town.
A hotel in walking distance to the course location and to the city centre is hotel Buenda. Check out any other hotel in Davos on the various booking platforms available, there is also a youth hostel with double rooms etc. available. Davos has a bus system (riding the bus is free with your hotel booking) and with a bit of walking, everything is close. Hotel prices vary from CHF 70 (low) to 300 (medium-high) per night and person. Check out the location of the hotel Shima and the distance to the hotel of your choice via google maps. Note that if not stated otherwise, breakfast is included and prices are usually per person, not per room. There are restaurants in town or supermarkets to buy your on food. If you do not want to bother with dinner, include it in your accommodation as half-board.
Location/Climate
Davos is the highest city in the alps at 1500 m a.s.l. Population is 11'000. Davos is partitioned into several "quarters", called "Davos Dorf", "Davos Platz", "Davos Glaris" etc. with "Davos Dorf" and "Platz" forming the actual city. Getting around the city is easy. Most hotels and stores are in walking distance or can be reached by bus. Public transportation is included with your hotel booking. Davos is in the middle of 4 ski areas and some of the gondolas operate in summer and are free of charge with your hotel bookings. Temperatures in July are in the 20 degrees Celsius, but make sure to bring a sweater and a jacket as it can get cool even in summer. There is a lake ( although temperatures are too low for swimming (at least in June)) and many opportunities for walking/hiking, so you might want to bring appropriate shoes.
How to get here
By air: The closest major Airport is Zurich (ZRH). From the airport, there is a train connection to Zurich main station and further to Davos (you may have to change to a bus in Klosters, which is a village about 15 minutes before you arrive in Davos). It will take approx 2.5 hours to get to Davos from the airport. The train schedule is at www.sbb.ch
By train: Davos is accessible by train, see http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html
By road: Check online route planners or trust your GPS system
Prerequisites, things to read or prepare
Please bring your laptop.Download and install R (http://www.r-project.org/) and Julia (http://julialang.org)
Familiarise yourself with the data creation, matrices, plotting and programming commands in Julia
Read Falconer and MacKay, Introduction to Quantitative Genetics, chapters 7, 8 and 9.
Familiarise yourself with the concepts of simple linear and multiple regression.
I am excited to see you in Davos, in our last course in 2013, Rohan and Dorian got excellent teaching evaluations. With only about 20 students expected to attend, interaction with the experts has never been easier, let's make it a successful course!
See you soon!