Pre-Conference Workshop

A free half-day workshop will be held the day before the conference.


Date	Tuesday 1 December 2026
Time	13:00 – 17:00
Venue	University of Wollongong, in association with the AES–SASB Conference
Cost	Free
Places	Limited to 30 participants, first come, first served. Priority will be given to conference attendees.
Register by	Sunday 8 November 2026

Overview

This half-day workshop will provide an introduction to phylogenomics. It comprises a series of lectures and practical exercises covering the interpretation of phylogenetic trees, data types, evolutionary models, maximum likelihood, gene trees vs species trees, and phylogenomic analysis.

The workshop will include short practical exercises based on the software MEGA, IQ-TREE, and ASTER. Prior knowledge of basic phylogenetics, or at least familiarity with molecular data and interpreting phylogenetic trees, is very helpful.

Instructors

The workshop will be run by Prof Simon Ho and Dr Manuela Cascini from the Molecular Ecology, Evolution, and Phylogenomics Laboratory, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney.

Who should attend

It helps to know some basic phylogenetics, or at least to be familiar with molecular data and reading phylogenetic trees.

Resources and computing

Workshop materials, including lecture slides and files for the practical exercises, will be available on GitHub prior to the start of the workshop.

The practical exercises involve basic analyses of prepared data sets. Please bring your own laptop with the following software installed: MEGA 12, IQ-TREE 3, ASTER, and FigTree.

Schedule

Time	Session
13:00 – 13:10	Introduction to the workshop
13:10 – 14:00	Lecture 1: Molecular phylogenetics
14:00 – 15:00	Practical exercise 1: Phylogenetic analysis using MEGA
15:00 – 15:15	Afternoon tea
15:15 – 16:00	Lecture 2: Phylogenomics
16:00 – 17:00	Practical exercise 2: Phylogenomic analysis using IQ-TREE and ASTER

Download the workshop flyer (PDF)