Update: Some months after I told them that I wouldn’t participate if they insisted on a passport even to give a remote talk, they have supposedly dropped this stupid requirement, so I will start working on a talk to present remotely.
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Although my name is listed on the symposium website, I will not be attending or speaking remotely. I did hope to participate remotely, since the organizers, Feng-Min Li and Jacob Weiner have done excellent research on how tradeoffs have shaped crop evolution, with implications for crop genetic improvement. However, registration to participate, even remotely, required a photo of my passport. Since there is no legitimate reason to require a passport photo for remote participation — none of the five countries where I’ve given remote talks has ever asked for this — and I have no way to assess the risk of identity theft, I refused.
If you’re hoping to hear a particular speaker on the list, you might want to check with them, in case there are other errors.
The talk I would have given would have been similar to this one.