Evolutionary genetics is central to a wide range of biological questions, and is expanding dramatically with the flood of DNA sequence data. This intensive four-day course will give a thorough introduction to the subject, showing its broad scope, and teaching a variety of techniques that can be used to model the evolutionary process, and that can be applied to diverse problems.
The course is aimed at graduate students with diverse backgrounds - both in evolutionary biology, and coming in from different fields.
Teaching will be a combination of lectures, discussion groups, and worked examples; simulation software will be provided (see the Resources menu).
Overview: History and major issues
Neutral evolution: Random drift and the coalescent; mutation; recombination
Selection, and its interactions with other evolutionary processes
Evolutionary quantitative genetics (unlike the other cores this will be held as the final session on Day 4)
Population structure OR Evolution of the genome
Social evolution OR Evolutionary ecology
Speciation OR Evolution of the genetic system
Dr. Daniel Kronauer will give a 50 minute talk on his work in the area of social evolution.
Title: The birth, life and death of an army ant superorganism
Nick Barton, Jon Bollback, Sylvia Cremer (IST Austria)
Reinhard Bürger, Joachim Hermisson, Ines Hellman (University of Vienna)
Magnus Nordborg (Gregor Mendel Institute)
Christian Schlötterer (Veterinary Medicine University)
Daniel Kronauer (Harvard University)
Daven Presgraves (University of Rochester)
For more information about the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics (Popgen Vienna), and evolution research in the Vienna area, see Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics and EvolVienna.
28 September - 1 October 2010. The course runs for four full days, with students arriving for a welcome reception on the evening of Monday 27 September. For more information see the Schedule tab in the menu bar.
The course will be held at the campus of IST Austria. The campus of IST Austria is located 18 km northwest of Vienna, within the historical town of Klosterneuburg. It is surrounded by the Vienna Woods. Accommodation will be in the Guesthouse on the IST campus. For more information follow the links about Vienna and the region of Klosterneuburg. For information on how to get to and from IST Austria see the Location tab in the menu bar.
Students that complete the course will be awarded 2EC credits.
The material on this site can be accessed using the menus at the top of the page. All areas are publicly accessible except the Course Materials. If you have already registered and paid for the course you will have received a login and password to access these restricted pages. If you have not received this information please E-mail us.
Please explore this website as it contains useful information and materials that will be needed before starting the course.
Please go to the central building of IST Austria (see campus map). On Monday, September 27th check-in for the guesthouse will be open from 09:00-18:00. If you arrive earlier or later, please contact us for further information on how to get your room key (see Questions or Assitance below).
We will have an outing to a traditional Heurigen. The meeting point is at 19:00 in front of the IST Lecture Hall.
Please e-mail J. Bollback at and he will provide assistance.
If you have any further questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to E-mail us (). Please note: Website queries should be sent to the address immediately above.
