The Ohio State University, with generous financial support from the Willi Hennig Society, will conduct a workshop on phylogenetic methods in Columbus, Ohio, July 21-26, 2008.  The purpose is to provide further instruction and experience to students who already have some familiarity with phylogenetic analysis. The format is a series of lectures and laboratory sessions that will give students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the logic of the phylogenetic method, parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches, tree search strategies, measures of support, DNA alignment, morphological character coding, weighting, analysis of multiple and large data sets, consensus and character hypothesis testing. 

      Lecturers are expected to include James M. Carpenter (Growth of modern systematics, Coding morphological characters), James S. Farris (Political history of phylogenetics), Pablo A. Goloboff (Optimization, Tree search, Consensus methods, Clade support, Large data sets, Weighting), Mari Källersjö (Alignment and subsequent analysis of molecular data), Laura S. Kubatko (Logic and operation of Likelihood and Bayesian approaches), John W. Wenzel (Nontraditional characters, Diagnosing problematic results), and Ward C. Wheeler (Dynamic optimization).  The software used for the course will include TNT, POY, RaxML, MrBayes (all distributed with the course packet) and Clustal.  

      Participation is limited to 20 students.  Cost for the workshop, including one week of lodging, is $1200, but each student will receive a $600 fellowship.  Thus the student will be responsible for only a workshop cost of $600, the cost of transportation to and from the Ohio State campus, and meals. Lodging will be provided adjacent to campus, consisting of two-bedroom apartments with kitchenette. 

       An application consists of a completed application form, a current CV for the student, and a letter from the student’s advisor regarding the relevance of the course to the student’s career goals.  Applications are due April 15, 2008 (by email to osuphylo@osu.edu), and notification of acceptance will begin by April 30.  Further information may be obtained by emailing osuphylo@osu.edu.

      Further information may be obtained by emailing osuphylo@osu.edu.

     This workshop is sponsored by the Ohio State University Museum of Biological Diversity, Departments of Evolution Ecology and Organismal Biology and Entomology, and College of Biological Sciences and the Willi Hennig Society.