Conference Program

Evolution in the Gong (Joint AES x SASB Conference) 2026 will be held at the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2–4 December 2026 hosted by Damien Esquerre (AES) and Nik Johnson (SASB).

We are delighted to announce our AES plenary speakers along with our two Best Paper Awardees.

Plenaries

Iliana Medina Guzman

Dr Iliana Medina Guzman

University of Melbourne

Ian G. Brennan

Dr Ian G. Brennan

Queensland Museum / ANU

Phil Byrne

Professor Phil Byrne

University of Wollongong

Best Paper Award - ECR

Carmen da Silva

Dr Carmen da Silva

Macquarie University

Paper: Nesting behaviour predicts heat tolerance evolution and climate vulnerability in bees (da Silva et al. 2026 Nature Communications)

Best Paper Award - PhD

Li Yun

Dr Li Yun (李韵 or “Living”)

CSIRO

Paper: Evolution across the adaptive landscape in a hyperdiverse beetle radiation (Li et al. 2024. Current Biology)

References:

da Silva, C. R. B., Beaman, J. E., Dorey, J. B., Bradford, T., Smith, T. J., Gloag, R., & Kellermann, V. (2026). Nesting behaviour predicts heat tolerance evolution and climate vulnerability in bees. Nature Communications, 17(1), 4961. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73689-7

Li, Y., Moritz, C., Brennan, I. G., Zwick, A., Nicholls, J., Grealy, A., & Slipinski, A. (2024). Evolution across the adaptive landscape in a hyperdiverse beetle radiation. Current Biology, 34(16), 3685-3697.e6. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.06.080

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