ConGen
ConGen 2021
Conservation Genetics, Population Genomics, and Molecular Ecology
September 6-17, 2021
The goal of ConGen 2021 is to provide training in conceptual and practical aspects of population genomic data analyses to improve understanding of the evolutionary and ecological genomics of natural and managed populations.
New this year, we will have more keynote lectures that illustrate how genomic data are used to address important questions in conservation, ecology, and evolutionary genetics. We will have more than 15 expert instructors from multiple countries to help teach a breadth of concepts and applications. Fundamental statistical and computational approaches will help prepare students and professionals to use population genomic data in their work.
Emphasis will be on next-generation sequence (NGS) data analysis (RADs, DNA capture, and genome sequencing) and interpretation of output from fundamental and novel statistical approaches and software programs (including R and Linux command line). The course promotes interactions among early-career researchers (students/participants) and leaders in population genomics to help develop our "next generation" of conservation and evolutionary geneticists. We will identify and discuss developments needed to improve data analysis approaches to advance the field.
This course will cover concepts and methods including the coalescent, Bayesian, and likelihood-based approaches. Special lecture sessions and hands-on exercises will be conducted on population structure, detecting selection, and genetic monitoring (of Ne, FST, Nm, etc.), landscape genomics, inbreeding detection (RoH), parentage assignment, gene flow estimation, eDNA for biodiversity monitoring, and more. It will include daily sessions with hands-on data analysis activities, including genotyping and data analyses using NGS data.
This course is sponsored by the American Genetic Association, the Journal of Heredity, NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NSF (the Dimensions in Biodiversity program), along with DoveTail Genomics, eDNA, and support from the publications eDNA, Evolutionary Applications, and Conservation Genetics. It includes more than 15 expert instructors and hands-on data analysis using your data and dummy data sets provided by instructors. It has led to publications describing the main topics and outcomes of the course in past years, to facilitate data analysis for population geneticists worldwide. For example, see 4 pubs below: