Rate My Professor Simon Ho

Professor Simon Ho is a Professor of Molecular Evolution in the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney, affiliated with the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. He co-founded the Molecular Ecology, Evolution, and Phylogenomics (MEEP) Laboratory in 2011 and has supervised more than 40 Honours and PhD research students. Ho's research specializations encompass molecular clocks, evolutionary rates, phylogenomics, genomic evolution, and molecular ecology. He applies molecular, genomic, and computational approaches to investigate evolution across diverse organisms and temporal scales. Ho has published over 260 scientific articles, including landmark contributions such as 'Relaxed phylogenetics and dating with confidence' (2006), 'PartitionFinder: Combined selection of partitioning schemes and substitution models for phylogenetic analyses' (2012), 'Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds' (2014), 'Time dependency of molecular rate estimates and systematic overestimation of recent divergence times' (2005), and 'Accounting for calibration uncertainty in phylogenetic estimation of evolutionary divergence times' (2009). He also edited the book The Molecular Evolutionary Clock.

Ho completed his BSc (Honours) in 2002 and MSc (Research) in 2003 at the University of Sydney, followed by a DPhil in 2006 at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Andrew Rambaut, Alan Cooper, Alexei Drummond, and Richard Fortey. His career includes postdoctoral positions with Lindell Bromham at the Australian National University and with Beth Shapiro and Peter Holland at the University of Oxford. Ho's achievements have earned him major awards and fellowships, including the Fenner Medal from the Australian Academy of Science (2017), Ross Crozier Medal from the Genetics Society of Australasia (2018), Fellowship of the Royal Society of New South Wales (2021), Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher from the Australian Museum (2014), Edgeworth David Medal from the Royal Society of New South Wales (2015), Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2017–2021), Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship (2011–2015), and Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008–2010).