View the Conference Program online
You can view the 2026 ASP Conference program online through Conftool https://www.conftool.net/asp2026/sessions.php and you can download the Conference4me app to view the 2026 ASP Conference program on your smartphone.
The Conference4me smartphone app provides you with the most comfortable tool for planning your participation in the 2026 Australian Society for Parasitology Annual Conference. Browse the complete programme directly from your phone or tablet and create your very own agenda on the fly. The app is available for Android and iOS devices.
To download mobile app, please visit http://conference4me.eu/download or type ‘conference4me’ in Google Play or iTunes App Store. And then search for 2026 Australian Society for Parasitology Annual Conference in the app.
You can also download the ASP Conference program as a pdf here
Conference Registration is now closed.
Conference Program
The 2026 ASP Annual Conference will take place at Mantra on View Hotel, 22 View Avenue, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, QLD 4217 from June 29 – July 2, 2026 with the registration desk opening at 2:00pm on Monday June 29, 2026. The Welcome Reception will take place at Mantra on View Hotel, on Monday June 29, from 6:00 – 8:00pm, the scientific program will run across three full days from 9:00am, Tuesday June 30 and the Conference will conclude with dinner at at Sea World, Gold Coast, Pre- Dinner at Dolphin Beach (featuring the enchanting dolphin encounters) followed by Dinner in the Plaza with a DJ on the evening of Thursday July 2, 2026 from 6:30 – 10:00pm.
On the first morning of the conference, Tuesday June 30, we will have a special Welcome to Country cultural experience from the Yugambeh Language Speaking (YLS) Peoples. The YLS Peoples consist of the clans of the Mununjali; Wangerriburra; Kombumerri, Migunberri; Birrinburra; and Minjungbal. The region from the Logan River in the north, south to the Tweed River and west to the mountain range, are the traditional homelands of the Yugambeh Language Speaking (YLS) Peoples. This Region is also known to the YLS Peoples as the Land of Five Rivers (Dangan Bullen). The modern description is the Gold Coast. For this Welcome to Country we hope the whole conference delegation will make the short walk to the beach at Surfers Paradise for the ceremony and song, this will be confirmed.
Discuss the latest research and state-of-the-art technologies in parasitology and anaerobic protozoology. The scientific program will cover all parasitology themes from Veterinary Parasitology to Human Parasitology, with Malaria, Strongyloides, Bioinformatics, Microscopy, Livestock, Wildlife Parasitology, Fish Parasitology, Companion Animals and One Health. The program covers all aspects of parasitology research and that includes basic research in all areas of life science.
Strongloides Australia one-day workshop, and Oral Parasites one-day workshop Monday June 29, 2026, 9:00am – 3:30pm
Prior to the 2026 ASP Conference Strongyloides Australia will run a one-day workshop and there will also be a one-day Oral Parasites workshop. Select this event through your conference registration.
ECR and Student Breakfast Event
Tuesday June 30, 7:15am – 8:45am at Mantra on View Surfers Paradise, 22 View Avenue, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, QLD 4217
On the first full day of the 2026 ASP Annual Conference we start with a networking breakfast event for our research students and early career researchers. Select this event through your conference registration.
The theme for this Student & ECR workshop is “Choose your own adventure – career planning for parasitologists” with an interactive panel discussion about career paths and the choices and decisions we make that affect our careers.
The panel comprises of some of our best scientists who represent a range of career stages and experiences. Our panellists will be sharing decisions they have made during their career that have altered their trajectory. Attendees will be given scenarios at the intersection of life and career with different options; they will discuss risk vs reward, backup plans, how to make difficult decisions and using support networks. Panellists will give insights into what their decisions ultimately lead to and reflections about those decisions. Would they have made the same decisions today?
Meet our wonderful panellists below.
Dr Catherine Gordon
Dr Catherine Gordon is a molecular parasitologist and head of the Applied Tropical and Molecular Parasitology lab at QIMRB. Dr Gordon completed a Bachelor of Science (Microbiology and Biomedicine) with first class honours (Marine Parasitology) at the University of QLD (UQ) where she was infected with a love of worms by her honours supervisor, Prof Tom Cribb. She then when on to complete a PhD (Public Health: Molecular Parasitology) also from UQ, looking at reservoir hosts of Schistosoma japonicum in the Philippines. She has a track record in molecular parasitology techniques for diagnosis and epidemiology, medical parasitology, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), transmission dynamics, and field work in South-East Asia, including the Philippines, China, Cambodia and Lao PDR on zoonotic helminth parasites.
Dr Gordons research program aims to develop new diagnostics for a range of parasitic helminths with a particular focus on developing point-of-care diagnostics, molecular based tools and genetics of helminth parasites to help elucidate epidemiology of these diseases and identify animal reservoirs. She has a particular focus on schistosomiasis, strongyloidiasis and soil-transmitted helminths. In addition to her research activities at QIMRB Dr Gordon lectures in parasite immunology at the University of Queensland, and parasite diagnostics at the Queensland University of Technology
Dr Liisa Ahlstrom
Liisa is a Technical Services Veterinarian at Elanco Animal Health. A University of Queensland veterinary graduate with a PhD in transdermal pharmacology and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, Liisa’s career spans clinical practice, academia at the University of Sydney, and industry leadership. She is deeply passionate about teaching and research, with a particular focus on companion animal parasites and vector-borne diseases. Liisa is dedicated to working with her team at Elanco to improve the quality of life for pets and their companions.
Dr Christopher D. Goodman
Christopher Dean Goodman is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne where he studies the genetics and cell biology of malaria parasites.
Dr Goodman began scientific research later in his career, after completing a degree in Political Science and sailing on a tall ship in the North Atlantic. As an undergraduate at the University of Victoria (Canada), he researched fungal molecular biology, soil dynamics, and the ecological impacts of salmon farming before moving to Stanford University (USA) for a PhD in plant molecular genetics and cell biology. His PhD produced three foundational papers in the synthesis and cellular trafficking of pigments determining the colour and u.v. sensitivity of ornamental and crop plants.
After moving to the University of Melbourne, he started an ongoing, 23-year collaboration with Professor Geoff McFadden studying apicomplexan parasites. His published work spans drug development and resistance, organellar biology, parasite sexual development, malaria genetics, and mosquito-parasite interactions. His current research programme applies insights into the basic biology of mosquito stage parasites, the evolution of drug resistance, and parasite population genetics to develop new transmission-blocking strategies aimed at advancing malaria eradication.
Dr Kristina Lehnert
Dr. habil. Kristina Lehnert is a zoologist and wildlife ecology researcher whose work focuses on understanding how environmental stressors affect marine wildlife. She studied biology at Kiel University, Germany, and completed her PhD on marine mammal parasites at the Research and Technology Centre Westcoast.
Following her PhD, she joined Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht as a postdoctoral researcher, where she expanded her expertise from parasitology into ecotoxicology and immunology, investigating the effects of contaminants on the immune responses of seals and cetaceans. This work included developing molecular markers and biomarkers for wildlife health assessments in Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems.
Since 2013, Dr. Lehnert has been a research associate at the Institute of Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, where she obtained her habilitation (venia legendi) in zoology in 2024. Her research integrates parasitology, molecular ecology, ecotoxicology, and conservation biology to develop bioindicators of wildlife health and support the conservation of vulnerable marine top predators.
Dr. Lehnert has conducted fieldwork in Antarctica and Greenland and collaborates with researchers across Europe and New Zealand. She is also actively involved in teaching and supervising students in wildlife health, ecotoxicology, and parasitology.
Professor Jonathn Marchant
Jonathan is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). He received his undergraduate and PhD training at Cambridge University, before doing post-doctoral research at University of California Irvine, all in the field of signal transduction. He was faculty in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota for 15 years, before joining MCW in 2017 as the Chair of Cell Biology. Our lab works on identification of new targets and treatments for infectious diseases caused by parasitic flatworms. A key interest is understanding ion channel signalling pathways that guide physiological progress throughout the schistosome life cycle.
Dr Storm Martin
Storm is a taxonomist with particular focus for the Trematoda and Monogenea parasitic in fishes. He leads a small research team discovering biodiversity and exploring biosystematics, biogeography, evolutionary history and conservation of parasites in wildlife. Following completion of his PhD at the University of Queensland in 2019, Storm undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at Murdoch University in Perth and now holds an Associate Lecturer role, teaching parasitology into biomedical, veterinary and environmental sciences.