Three MEEP students receive their PhDs
Three students from the MEEP Lab have been awarded their doctorates in the past few weeks. Andrew Ritchie was awarded a PhD for his thesis “Evaluating the performance of diversification models for reconstructing evolutionary history”. Chapters of the thesis have been published in Organisms Diversity & Evolution and in Systematic Biology. Andrew is about to commence a postdoctoral research …
Fenner Medal from Australian Academy of Science
Prof. Simon Ho has received the 2017 Fenner Medal from the Australian Academy of Science. The medal was presented during the Science at the Shine Dome event in Canberra, an annual gathering of the nation’s top scientists. Simon gave a brief talk about his work, entitled “The evolutionary timescale of the Tree of Life”. The Fenner Medal …
How cathedral termites arrived to build their ‘skyscrapers’
They build among the tallest non-human structures (proportionately speaking) in the world and now it’s been discovered the termites that live in Australia’s remote Top End originated from overseas – rafting vast distances and migrating from tree-tops to the ground, as humans later did. Referred to as “cathedral” termites, the Nasutitermes triodiae build huge mounds up to …
PhD student wins Postgraduate Excellence Prize
MEEP PhD student Charles Foster has won the Postgraduate Excellence Prize from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. This award was established by the school in 2002 to “support and promote the development of postgraduate student research excellence”. Charles was judged the winner of the prize based on his talk on “Untangling the patterns …
Workshop: Taming the BEAST in the South Pacific
Members of the MEEP Lab will be part of the teaching team for the upcoming workshop “Taming the BEAST in the South Pacific” in February 2017. Phylogenetics and phylodynamics are central topics in modern biology. Phylogenetic inferences reconstruct the evolutionary relationships between organisms, whereas phylodynamic inferences reveal the dynamics that lead to the observed relationships. …
PhD student Jun Tong delivers Scholar’s Address
MEEP PhD candidate Jun Tong delivered the Scholar’s Address at the recent Faculty of Science Awards ceremony at the University of Sydney. Jun’s address, delivered to an audience of high-achieving students, their parents, distinguished alumni, and staff, concerned the importance of scientific research and scholarship. The Faculty of Science Awards ceremony is held annually, with …
Oceans apart: Sampling the hawksbill turtle’s genetic diversity
Eight genetically distinct populations of hawksbill turtles have been identified in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. The study by researchers from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences has revealed connections between populations in different oceans and identified management units for conservation. Marine turtles travel around the world to feed and mate, but as the saying goes, …
Prizes for members of the MEEP Lab
A number of prizes have been awarded to members of the MEEP lab over the past month Professor Simon Ho was named as the 2015 recipient of the Edgeworth David Medal, awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales for “distinguished contributions by a young scientist under the age of 35 years”. PhD student …
Workshop on advanced phylogenetic analysis
The MEEP Lab recently ran a workshop on Advanced Phylogenetic Analysis at the Australian National University (16–18 November). The 28 participants attended a series of talks and took part in practicals based on a variety of phylogenetic software. The workshop was the latest in a series of regular training opportunities provided by members of the …
Prizes for Honours student Cara Van Der Wal
MEEP Honours student Cara Van Der Wal has won a number of significant prizes for her work. Cara recently won the prize for best student talk at the international Crustacean Society Conference, held at the Australian Museum. Cara also received an honourable mention for the poster that she presented at the Genetics Society of Australasia …