Professor Simon Ho
People_

Professor Simon Ho

BSc MSc (Sydney) DPhil (Oxford) FRSN
Professor of Molecular Evolution
School of Life and Environmental Sciences
Professor Simon Ho

Simon is a Professor of Molecular Evolution in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. Since co-founding the Molecular Ecology, Evolution, and Phylogenetics Lab in 2011, he has supervised more than 40 Honours and PhD research students. Simon has published more than 250 scientific articles and edited The Molecular Evolutionary Clock (published by Springer in 2020).

Simon has research interests in molecular clocks, evolutionary rates, phylogenomics, genomic evolution, and molecular ecology.

2021 - Fellow, Royal Society of New South Wales

2018 - Ross Crozier Medal, Genetics Society of Australasia

2017 - Fenner Medal, Australian Academy of Science

2016 - Future Fellowship, Australian Research Council

2015 - Edgeworth David Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

2014 - NSW Young Tall Poppy of the Year, Australian Institute of Policy & Science

2014 - Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, Australian Museum

2011 - Alan Wilton Award, Genetics Society of Australasia

2011 - Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship, Australian Research Council

2008 - Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship, Australian Research Council

Project titleResearch student
The Australian tick Microbiome - Pathogens and Symbionts.Laurene LECLERC
Genomic based approaches for risk management in conservationEilish MCMASTER

Publications

Edited Books

  • Ho, S. (2020). The Molecular Evolutionary Clock: Theory and Practice. TBC. [More Information]

Book Chapters

  • Ho, S., Endicott, P. (2020). Dating Methods: Genetic. In Claire Smith (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology (Second Edition), (pp. 3144-3155). Switzerland: Springer Cham. [More Information]
  • Van Der Wal, C., Ho, S. (2019). Molecular Clock. In S. Raganathan, M. Gribskov, K. Nakai. C. Schonbach (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, (pp. 719-726). United States of America: Elsevier. [More Information]
  • Ho, S. (2015). Molecular clocks. In W. Jack Rink, Jeroen W. Thompson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods, (pp. 583-588). Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. [More Information]

Journals

  • Duchêne, D., Duchene, S., Stiller, J., Heller, R., Ho, S. (2024). ClockstaRX: Testing Molecular Clock Hypotheses with Genomic Data. Genome Biology and Evolution, 16(4). [More Information]
  • Kovacs, T., Walker, J., Hellemans, S., Bourguignon, T., Tatarnic, N., Mcrae, J., Ho, S., Lo, N. (2024). Dating in the Dark: Elevated Substitution Rates in Cave Cockroaches (Blattodea: Nocticolidae) Have Negative Impacts on Molecular Date Estimates. Systematic Biology, 73(3), 532-545. [More Information]
  • Warwick Dus Adams, M., Carlile, N., Hutton, I., Ho, S., Lo, N., Walker, J., Rose, H., Jones, B., Zwick, A., Yang, H., et al (2024). Plio-Pleistocene decline of mesic forest underpins diversification in a clade of Australian Panesthia cockroaches. Systematic Entomology. [More Information]

Reference Works

  • Ho, S., Endicott, P., Molak, M. (2014). DNA interpretation constraints in archaeology. In Smith C. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. (pp. 2155-2159). New York: Springer New York LLC.
  • Ho, S., Endicott, P., Molak, M. (2014). Human evolution: Molecular timescale. In Smith C. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. (pp. 3511-3514). New York: Springer New York LLC.

2024

  • Duchêne, D., Duchene, S., Stiller, J., Heller, R., Ho, S. (2024). ClockstaRX: Testing Molecular Clock Hypotheses with Genomic Data. Genome Biology and Evolution, 16(4). [More Information]
  • Kovacs, T., Walker, J., Hellemans, S., Bourguignon, T., Tatarnic, N., Mcrae, J., Ho, S., Lo, N. (2024). Dating in the Dark: Elevated Substitution Rates in Cave Cockroaches (Blattodea: Nocticolidae) Have Negative Impacts on Molecular Date Estimates. Systematic Biology, 73(3), 532-545. [More Information]
  • Warwick Dus Adams, M., Carlile, N., Hutton, I., Ho, S., Lo, N., Walker, J., Rose, H., Jones, B., Zwick, A., Yang, H., et al (2024). Plio-Pleistocene decline of mesic forest underpins diversification in a clade of Australian Panesthia cockroaches. Systematic Entomology. [More Information]

2023

  • Asar, Y., Sauquet, H., Ho, S. (2023). Evaluating the Accuracy of Methods for Detecting Correlated Rates of Molecular and Morphological Evolution. Systematic Biology, 72(6), 1337-1356. [More Information]
  • Van Der Wal, C., Ahyong, S., Warwick Dus Adams, M., Ewart, K., Ho, S., Lo, N. (2023). Genomic analysis reveals strong population structure in the Giant Sydney Crayfish (Euastacus spinifer (Heller, 1865)). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 178. [More Information]
  • Luo, A., Zhang, C., Zhou, Q., Ho, S., Zhu, C. (2023). Impacts of Taxon-Sampling Schemes on Bayesian Tip Dating under the Fossilized Birth-Death Process. Systematic Biology, 72(4), 781-801. [More Information]

2022

  • Asar, Y., Ho, S., Sauquet, H. (2022). Early diversifications of angiosperms and their insect pollinators: were they unlinked? Trends in Plant Science, 27(9), 858-869. [More Information]
  • Vankan, M., Ho, S., Duchene, D. (2022). Evolutionary Rate Variation among Lineages in Gene Trees has a Negative Impact on Species-Tree Inference. Systematic Biology, 71(2), 490-500. [More Information]
  • Duchêne, D., Mather, N., Van Der Wal, C., Ho, S. (2022). Excluding Loci with Substitution Saturation Improves Inferences from Phylogenomic Data. Systematic Biology, 71(3), 676-689. [More Information]

2021

  • Tims, A., Unmack, P., Ho, S. (2021). A fossil-calibrated time-tree of all Australian freshwater fishes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 161, 1-7. [More Information]
  • Kawakubo, S., Gao, F., Li, S., Tan, Z., Huang, Y., Adkar-Purushothama, C., Gurikar, C., Maneechoat, P., Chiemsombat, P., Aye, S., Ho, S., et al (2021). Genomic analysis of the brassica pathogen turnip mosaic potyvirus reveals its spread along the former trade routes of the Silk Road. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 11(12). [More Information]
  • Larena, M., Sánchez-Quinto, F., Sjödin, P., McKenna, J., Ebeo, C., Reyes, R., Casel, O., Huang, J., Hagada, K., Guilay, D., Ho, S., et al (2021). Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(13), e2026132118. [More Information]

2020

  • Mather, N., Traves, S., Ho, S. (2020). A practical introduction to sequentially Markovian coalescent methods for estimating demographic history from genomic data. Ecology and Evolution, 10(1), 579-589. [More Information]
  • Luo, A., Duchene, D., Zhang, C., Zhu, C., Ho, S. (2020). A Simulation-Based Evaluation of Tip-Dating under the Fossilized Birth-Death Process. Systematic Biology, 69(2), 325-344. [More Information]
  • Nie, Y., Foster, C., Zhu, T., Yao, R., Duchene, D., Ho, S., Zhong, B. (2020). Accounting for uncertainty in the evolutionary timescale of green plants through clock-partitioning and fossil calibration strategies. Systematic Biology, 69(1), 1-16. [More Information]

2019

  • Van Der Merwe, M., Yap, J., Bragg, J., Cristofolini, C., Foster, C., Ho, S., Rossetto, M. (2019). Assemblage accumulation curves: A framework for resolving species accumulation in biological communities using chloroplast DNA sequences. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10(7), 971-981. [More Information]
  • Tea, Y., Van Der Wal, C., Ludt, W., Gill, A., Lo, N., Ho, S. (2019). Boomeranging around Australia: Historical biogeography and population genomics of the anti-equatorial fish Microcanthus strigatus (Teleostei: Microcanthidae). Molecular Ecology, 28(16), 3771-3785. [More Information]
  • Van Der Wal, C., Ahyong, S., Ho, S., Lins, L., Lo, N. (2019). Combining morphological and molecular data resolves the phylogeny of Squilloidea (Crustacea: Malacostraca). Invertebrate Systematics, 33(1), 89-100. [More Information]

2018

  • Tong, K., Duchene, D., Duchene, S., Geoghegan, J., Ho, S. (2018). A comparison of methods for estimating substitution rates from ancient DNA sequence data. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 18(1), 1-10. [More Information]
  • Johnson, R., O'Meally, D., Chen, Z., Etherington, G., Ho, S., Nash, W., Grueber, C., Cheng, Y., Whittington, C., Dennison, S., Peel, E., Brandies, P., Hogg, C., Govendir, M., Jones, E., Wright, B., Belov, K., et al (2018). Adaptation and conservation insights from the koala genome. Nature Genetics, 50(8), 1102-1111. [More Information]
  • Duchene, D., Bragg, J., Duchene, S., Neaves, L., Potter, S., Moritz, C., Johnson, R., Ho, S., Eldridge, M. (2018). Analysis of phylogenomic tree space resolves relationships among marsupial families. Systematic Biology, 67(3), 400-412. [More Information]

2017

  • Lee, T., Evans, T., Cameron, S., Ho, S., Namyatova, A., Lo, N. (2017). A review of the status of Coptotermes (Isoptera:Rhinotermitidae) species in Australia with the description of two new small termite species from northern and eastern Australia. Invertebrate Systematics, 31(2), 180-190. [More Information]
  • Lins, L., Ho, S., Lo, N. (2017). An evolutionary timescale for terrestrial isopods and a lack of molecular support for the monophyly of Oniscidea (Crustacea: Isopoda). Organisms Diversity and Evolution, 17(4), 813-820. [More Information]
  • Lee, T., Evans, T., Cameron, S., Hochuli, D., Ho, S., Lo, N. (2017). Ecological diversification of the Australian Coptotermes termites and the evolution of mound building. Journal of Biogeography, 44, 1405-1417. [More Information]

2016

  • Llamas, B., Fehren-Schmitz, L., Valverde, G., Soubrier, J., Mallick, S., Rohland, N., Nordenfelt, S., Valdiosera, C., Richards, S., Rohrlach, A., Ho, S., et al (2016). Ancient mitochondrial DNA provides high-resolution time scale of the peopling of the Americas. Science Advances, 2(4), 1-10. [More Information]
  • Duchene, S., Duchene, D., Di Giallonardo, F., Eden, J., Geoghegan, J., Holt, K., Ho, S., Holmes, E. (2016). Cross-validation to select Bayesian hierarchical models in phylogenetics. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 16(1), 1-8. [More Information]
  • Soubrier, J., Gower, G., Chen, K., Richards, S., Llamas, B., Mitchell, K., Ho, S., Kosintsev, P., Lee, M., Baryshnikov, G., et al (2016). Early cave art and ancient DNA record the origin of European bison. Nature Communications, 7, 1-7. [More Information]

2015

  • Luo, A., Lan, H., Ling, C., Zhang, A., Shi, L., Ho, S., Zhu, C. (2015). A simulation study of sample size for DNA barcoding. Ecology and Evolution, 5(24), 5869-5879. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Tong, K., Foster, C., Ritchie, A., Lo, N., Crisp, M. (2015). Biogeographic calibrations for the molecular clock. Biology Letters, 11(9), 1-7. [More Information]
  • Tong, K., Duchene, S., Ho, S., Lo, N. (2015). Comment on "Phylogenomics resolves the timing and pattern of insect evolution". Science, 349(6427), 487-487. [More Information]

2014

  • Hope, A., Ho, S., Malaney, J., Cook, J., Talbot, S. (2014). Accounting for rate variation among lineages in comparative demographic analyses. Evolution, 68(9), 2689-2700. [More Information]
  • Duchene, S., Holmes, E., Ho, S. (2014). Analyses of evolutionary dynamics in viruses are hindered by a time-dependent bias in rate estimates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1786), 1-7. [More Information]
  • Shapiro, B., Ho, S. (2014). Ancient hyaenas highlight the old problem of estimating evolutionary rates. Molecular Ecology, 23(3), 499-501. [More Information]

2013

  • Lorion, J., Kiel, S., Faure, B., Kawato, M., Ho, S., Marshall, B., Tsuchida, S., Miyazaki, J., Fujiwara, Y. (2013). Adaptive radiation of chemosymbiotic deep-sea mussels. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1770), 1-10. [More Information]
  • Foote, A., Kaschner, K., Schultze, S., Garilao, C., Ho, S., Post, K., Higham, T., Stokowska, C., Van Der Es, H., Embling, C., et al (2013). Ancient DNA reveals that bowhead whale lineages survived Late Pleistocene climate change and habitat shifts. Nature Communications, 4, 1-7. [More Information]
  • Langford, S., Kraitsek, S., Baskerville, B., Ho, S., Gongora, J. (2013). Australian and Pacific contributions to the genetic diversity of Norfolk Island feral chickens. BMC Genetics, 14(2), 1-8. [More Information]

2012

  • Greenwood, A., Tsangaras, K., Ho, S., Szentkis, C., Nikolin, V., Ma, G., Damiani, A., East, M., Lawrenz, A., Hofer, H., et al (2012). A Potentially Fatal Mix of Herpes in Zoos. Current Biology, 22, 1727-1731. [More Information]
  • Thornhill, A., Popple, L., Carter, R., Ho, S., Crisp, M. (2012). Are pollen fossils useful for calibrating relaxed molecular clock dating of phylogenies? A comparative study using Myrtaceae. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 63(1), 15-27. [More Information]
  • Dos Santos Ferreira Lins, L., Ho, S., Wilson, G., Lo, N. (2012). Evidence for Permo-Triassic colonization of the deep sea by isopods. Biology Letters, 8(6), 979-982. [More Information]

2011

  • Shapiro, B., Ho, S., Drummond, A., Suchard, M., Pybus, O., Rambaut, A. (2011). A Bayesian Phylogenetic Method to Estimate Unknown Sequence Ages. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 28(2), 879-887. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Lanfear, R., Phillips, M., Barnes, I., Thomas, J., Kolokotronis, S., Shapiro, B. (2011). Bayesian estimation of substitution rates from ancient DNA sequences with low information content. Systematic Biology, 60(3), 1-10. [More Information]
  • Wong, J., Ho, S., Hogg, P. (2011). Disulfide bond acquisition through eukaryotic protein evolution. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 28(1), 327-334. [More Information]

2010

  • Ho, S., Gilbert, M. (2010). Ancient mitogenomics. Mitochondrion, 10(1), 1-11. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Lanfear, R. (2010). Improved characterisation of among-lineage rate variation in cetacean mitogenomes using codon-partitioned relaxed clocks. Mitochondrial DNA, 21(3-4), 138-146. [More Information]
  • Lanfear, R., Ho, S., Love, D., Bromham, L. (2010). Mutation rate is linked to diversification in birds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(47), 20423-20428. [More Information]

2009

  • Rambaut, A., Ho, S., Drummond, A., Shapiro, B. (2009). Accommodating the effect of ancient DNA damage on inferences of demographic histories. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 26(2), 245-248. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Phillips, M. (2009). Accounting for calibration uncertainty in phylogenetic estimation of evolutionary divergence times. Systematic Biology, 58(3), 367-380. [More Information]
  • Ho, S. (2009). An examination of phylogenetic models of substitution rate variation among lineages. Biology Letters, 5(3), 421-424. [More Information]

2008

  • Endicott, P., Ho, S. (2008). A Bayesian Evaluation of Human Mitochondrial Substitution Rates. American Journal of Human Genetics, 82(4), 895-902. [More Information]
  • Buckley, M., Walker, A., Ho, S., Yang, Y., Smith, C., Ashton, P., Oates, J., Cappellini, E., Koon, H., Penkman, K., et al (2008). Comment on "Protein sequences from mastodon and Tyrannosaurus rex revealed by mass spectrometry". Science, 319(5859), 33-33. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Larson, G., Edwards, C., Heupink, T., Lakin, K., Holland, P., Shapiro, B. (2008). Correlating Bayesian date estimates with climatic events and domestication using a bovine case study. Biology Letters, 4(4), 370-374. [More Information]

2007

  • Haile, J., Holdaway, R., Oliver, K., Bunce, M., Gilbert, M., Nielsen, R., Munch, K., Ho, S., Shapiro, B., Willerslev, E. (2007). Ancient DNA chronology within sediment deposits: Are paleobiological reconstructions possible and is DNA leaching a factor? Molecular Biology and Evolution, 24(4), 982-989. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Heupink, T., Rambaut, A., Shapiro, B. (2007). Bayesian estimation of sequence damage in ancient DNA. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 24(6), 1416-1422. [More Information]
  • Ho, S. (2007). Calibrating molecular estimates of substitution rates and divergence times in birds. Journal of Avian Biology, 38(4), 409-414. [More Information]

2006

  • Binladen, J., Wiuf, C., Gilbert, M., Bunce, M., Barnett, R., Larson, G., Greenwood, A., Haile, J., Ho, S., Hansen, A., et al (2006). Assessing the fidelity of ancient DNA sequences amplified from nuclear genes. Genetics, 172(2), 733-741. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Larson, G. (2006). Molecular clocks: when times are a-changin'. Trends in Genetics, 22(2), 79-83. [More Information]
  • Drummond, A., Ho, S., Phillips, M., Rambaut, A. (2006). Relaxed Phylogenetics and Dating with Confidence. PLoS Biology, 4(5), 0699-0710. [More Information]

2005

  • Ho, S., Phillips, M., Drummond, A., Cooper, A. (2005). Accuracy of rate estimation using relaxed clock models, with a critical focus on the early metazoan radiation. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 22(5), 1355-1363. [More Information]
  • Weinstock, J., Willerslev, E., Sher, A., Tong, W., Ho, S., Rubenstein, D., Storer, J., Burns, J., Martin, L., Bravi, C., et al (2005). Evolution, systematics, and phylogeography of Pleistocene horses in the New World: A molecular perspective. PLoS Biology, 3(8), e241 - 1373-e241 - 1379. [More Information]
  • Murray, S., Flo Jorgensen, M., Ho, S., Patterson, D., Jermiin, L. (2005). Improving the analysis of dinoflagellate phylogeny based on rDNA. Protist, 156(3), 269-286. [More Information]

2004

  • Jermiin, L., Ho, S., Ababneh, F., Robinson, J., Larkum, A. (2004). The Biasing Effect Of Compositional Heterogeneity On Phylogenetic Estimates May Be Underestimated. Systematic Biology, 53(4), 638-643. [More Information]
  • Ho, S., Jermiin, L. (2004). Tracing The Decay Of The Historical Signal In Biological Sequence Data. Systematic Biology, 53(4), 623-637. [More Information]

2003

  • Jermiin, L., Ho, S., Ababneh, F., Robinson, J., Larkum, A. (2003). Hetero: a program to simulate the evolution of DNA on a four-taxon tree. Applied Bioinformatics, 2(3), 159-163.

Selected Grants

2023

  • Taxonomic revision of the perciform genus Acanthistius (Gunther 1859) and evaluation of its placement within Serranidae., Ho S, Menkara Y, Australian Museum/Postgraduate Scholarship
  • Inferring a Robust Phylogeny of the Liverwort Family Lepidoziaceae (Jungermanniales; Jungermanniopsida) Using an Exon-Capture Approach, Ho S, The Society of Systematic Biologists/Graduate Student Research Awards

2022

  • Genomic resources for conservation of the Lord Howe Island Woodroach, Panesthia lata, Lo N, Ho S, Australia & Pacific Science Foundation/Research Project Grant
  • Testing links between genomic and morphological evolutionary rates, Ho S, Lo N, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)

Related research articles

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