In recent years, Bayesian total-evidence dating has emerged as one of the premiere strategies for dating phylogenetic trees. However, in practice, total-evidence dating requires a great deal of biological, paleontological, and statistical expertise. Our workshop is intended to empower phylogeneticists interested in using total-evidence dating by providing: 1) a solid foundation in relevant topics in statistical phylogenetics; 2) discussion of empirical considerations, in particular how to deal with morphology and the fossil record, and; 3) hands-on experience with software, particularly RevBayes.

The course will begin on March 2 and run for 5 weeks (ending week of March 30). Each week, we will discuss a particular topic related to total-evidence dating (Wednesday 10 AM), provide experience with related methods with relevant hands-on tutorials (to be done throughout the week), and hold office hours to discuss the weekly topic and to help with practical issues that arise during the tutorials (Friday). See our Syllabus for more details about the topics covered each week.

Applications: Please complete our application form here to apply. The deadline for applications is January 28 2022. We expect to make application decisions by Feb 11 2022.

Instructors: Carl Rothfels (crothfels@berkeley.edu), Cindy Looy (looy@berkeley.edu), Michael Sundue (sundue@gmail.com), Michael May (mikeryanmay@gmail.com), Benjamin Muddiman (bmuddiman@berkeley.edu), and Ixchel González-Ramírez (ixchel_gonzalezrmz@berkeley.edu).

Code of Conduct: All workshop attendants, including instructors and students, are expected to behave according to our workshop Code of Conduct.

Brought to you by the Vascular Plant Timeline Working Group, the letters T, E, and D, and NSF grants DEB-1754705, DEB-1754723, and DEB-1754385.