Background

Evolution is a process that shapes all living systems. Recent years have seen the development of a new branch of biology that draws insights from evolutionary theory and combines them with powerful computational tools. This Computational Evolutionary approach has mathematics, statistics and computing at its heart, and enables deep integrative connections to biology, linguistics, psychology, and anthropology.

The aim of the Centre for Computational Evolution (CCE) is to build cutting-edge computational evolution tools and apply them to tackle major challenges of the 21st century. The Centre brings together and fosters growth in world leading research in computational evolutionary biology and is a natural meeting place for transdisciplinary research that fundamentally meshes these disciplines into new translational research.

Our Centre focuses on 5 themes: 1. computational evolution methods, 2. phylodynamics for health, 3. life system modelling, 4. cultural and linguistic evolution and 5. conservation genomics. These themes are crucially interlinked with models providing insight into and being informed by research questions spanning health, linguistics and conservation of our taonga species.