News ArchiveAn archive of the news items that have appeared on the AWC Home page in 2008/2009. Special Evolution LectureDr Alison Campbell of the University of Waikato will be talking in the Japanese Lecture Theatre on the Palmerston North campus of Massey University on Wednesday 20 May. The lecture is titled "Charles Darwin: the man behind the science?" Students probably hear Darwin's name in passing, as the man who came up with the basis of our current theory of evolution. This is a pity - because hearing the story of his journey through life (both physical & intellectual) has a lot to offer in terms of learning about the nature of science in general, and our understanding of evolution in particular. Alison's talk will look at that journey: Darwin's life, his voyage on the Beagle, and his intellectual voyage of discovery. Refreshments will be served from 5pm with the lecture starting at 5.30pm. Research Highlights (31 March 2009)At last, a comprehensive review of hybrid studies in New Zealand. Including plant, animal and virus examples this paper highlights the importance of hybridisation in the evolution of New Zealand's current biodiversity. Morgan-Richards et al. A review of egnetic analyses of hybridisation in New Zealand. The paper can be accessed through here. “It’s Ok, We’re Not Cousins by Blood: The Cousin Marriage Controversy in Historical Perspective" by Diane B. Paul and Hamish G. Spencer. This paper, co-authored by an Investigator in the AWC, has received much international media attention. According to Hamish it is a "paper that the AWC had a big hand in getting underway." Click here for the full story. The holdfasts of the Southern Bull Kelp, Durvillaea antarctica, are home to a diverse community of animals: various worms, crustaceans, seastars, chitons, limpets and snails. Two AWC researchers from Otago, Hamish Spencer and Jon Waters, along with their Te Papa Tongarewa colleague, Bruce Marshall, have discovered a new species of snail, which appears to live only on this plant. Hence, they have named the snail Diloma durvillaea. It occurs on the south-eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island as well as the Auckland Islands. This paper can be accessed here.
Image credit: Euan Young, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Congratulations (12-01-09)
Mike has been awarded a 2008 New Zealand Science and Technology Award by the New Zealand government for his "mathematical approach to molecular ecology and evolution [that] has transformed these fields and led to the acceptance that evolution is testable – a massive step forward. His quantitative methodology now forms an integral part of the phylogenetic software packages used worldwide." To top off a really good year Mike was also awarded the New Zealand Mathematical Society Award for "his innovative mathematical approach to molecular ecology and evolution which has transformed the field. His seminal work on the Hadamard transform - used to separate out pertinent signals in evolutionary data - is now an integral part of phylogenetic software internationally and has contributed to the solution of several fundamental problems". Mike was Executive Director of the AWC for the period 1 July 2002 to 27 October 2008. He is currently one of our principal investigators.
Barbara Holland received the New Zealand Mathematical Society Early Career Award for "her groundbreaking work in interpreting information of historical and biological importance in comparisons of genetic sequence data, and for her pioneering development of phylogenetic networks that succeeded where simple optimisation models failed in identifying conflicts and in unmasking the more interesting biological evidence".
In a clean sweep, at the same meeting, Mareike Fischer, an AWC PhD student, was awarded the Aitken Prize for the best contributed student talk titled "Curious properties of Maximum Parsimony in estimating evolutionary trees and ancestral sequence states".
BioEd 2009The AWC hosted a very successful conference at the Christchurch Convention Centre 12-15 February 2009. 2009 marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and it is 150 years since the publishing of his book "On the Origin of Species". These anniversaries are being celebrated around the world, and we will celebrate through both BioEd 2009 and the Allan Wilson Centre Lecture Series.
We hope you caught some of the media interest that was generated on radio and on TV. A number of interviews have been recorded and will play on radio over the next few months. We'll try to prompt you on when these interviews will be playing. As part of BioEd 2009 the AWC sponsored the play Collapsing Creation. The play, written by Arthur Meek and directed by Steven Whiting, will have its premier performance on Darwin’s birthday, 12 February, in the James Hay Theatre, Christchurch. This inspiring play will soon tour New Zealand’s larger cities. We'll let you know more when details have been finalised. Cass Workshop 2009A week long workshop on Wild ideas: speculations in theoretical evolutionary biology" was held at the University's Cass Field Station last month. Approximately 15 students, postdocs and visitors, mostly from overseas, participated over the week of Feb 21-March 1. Some foul weather ensured plenty of work was carried out on a blackboard and whiteboards in front of the fire, on a range of topics - from population genetics and phylogenetic networks to the study of speciation and extinction processes. Among the participants was Professor Andreas Dress, co-director of PICB in Shanghai, Prof. Benny Chor from Technion, and Prof. Daniel Huson from Tuebingen. From our department, participants included Beata Faller, Mareike Fischer, Mike Steel and Raaz Sainudiin. When the weather cleared, some 'field trips' were hastily organised to Cave Stream, Mt Bealey, Avalanche Peak, and Andrews Valley. The meeting was funded by the Alan Wilson Centre. - Mike Steel. Research Highlights from March 2009A recent study by a team of AWC researchers at the University of Otago has revealed exciting new evidence that ancient sea ice in the Southern Ocean extended substantially further north than ever suggested by previous studies. The team, led by AWC PhD student Ceridwen Fraser and including AWC members Dr Raisa Nikula, Professor Hamish Spencer and Associate Professor Jon Waters, analysed genetic patterns in bull kelp (Durvillaea antarctica) populations around the Southern Ocean and along the coasts of New Zealand and Chile. The relative lack of genetic variation in subantarctic bull kelp indicated that the species only recolonised the subantarctic region very recently, suggesting the subantarctic populations of bull kelp were wiped out by ice scour at the Last Glacial Maximum (around 20,000 years ago). The use of modern DNA to assess historic climate conditions is an important new approach to reconstructing climate change and understanding its evolutionary impacts. The paper "Fraser, C.I., Nikula, R., Spencer, H.G. and Waters, J.M. Kelp genes reveal effects of subantarctic sea ice during the Last Glacial Maximum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (online before print Feb 9, 2009): doi:10.1073/pnas.0810635106) ". The paper can be accessed through here. Queen's New Years Honours List
Allan Wilson Centre Lecture Series
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© 2009, Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution |
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Recent
research with Mike Hendy as an author has presented a mathematical model of
mitochondrial inheritance evolving under neutral evolution to interpret the
heteroplasmies observed at some sites. A comparison of the levels of heteroplasmies
transmitted from mother to her offspring allows us to estimate the number of
inherited mitochondrial genomes (segregating units). The paper can be accessed 
Mike Hendy's contribution to mathematical biology was recognised in the 2008 Queen's New Years Honours List where Mike was made an 
Mike Hendy's contribution to mathematical biology was
recognised in the 2008 Queen's New Years Honours List where Mike was
made an 
The
third lecture in the series will be given by Jack Harris.
Jack is Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA,
a Research Associate of the National Museum of Kenya and Coordinator
of Kenyan Field Schools in Paleoanthropology, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation.
His lecture is titled "In Darwin’s Footsteps: Bipedalism,
Tools and Foraging in the Early Stages of Human Evolution". 
The Allan Wilson Centre is very pleased to annouce the appointment of Prof Charles Daugherty of Victoria University of Wellington as its new Director. Prof Mike Steel of the University of Canterbury will continue as the Deputy Director.
The AWC was proud to support the team representing New Zealand
at the International Biology Olympiad 12-19 July 2009. This year (left to right) Max Biggs (Scott’s College, Wellington), Sophia Frentz (Tauranga Girls’ College), Geoffrey Hoggins (King’s College, Auckland) and Jenny Liu (Burnside High, Christchurch) joined top biology students from around the world at July's Olympiad in Japan.
New Zealand Plant Radiation Network Conference and Workshop To be held on 17 and 18 November 2009 at Lincoln University. Information on this event can be found 
James Cook Research Fellowships, administered on behalf of Government by the Royal Society of New Zealand, are awarded to researchers who have the requisite qualifications and experience and are able to demonstrate that they have achieved national and international recognition in their area of scientific research. The Fellowships allow them to concentrate on their chosen research for two years without the additional burden of administrative and teaching duties.
At a recent AWC Annual Meeting Leo Watson gave a presentation titled "Wai 262 – The Claim to Intellectual and Cultural Property, Genetic Resources and ‘Nga Taonga Katoa’. The powerpoint associated with this presentation can be found 
Welcome
The Allan Wilson Centre is proud to be associated with Science OlympiaNZ, the umbrella body representing all science olympiads in New Zealand. Science OlympiaNZ (SONZ) aims to foster academic excellence in Science. Here, teachers and students can discover the opportunities provided by science-related international competitions.
It is with great sadness that we learnt today (17 November, 2009) of the passing of Leona Wilson, the widow of Allan Wilson.