Register to attend the Oral Parasites Workshop at the 2026 ASP Annual Conference. This workshop uniquely integrates parasitology, dentistry, microbiology, and One Health frameworks, an area currently underrepresented in both dental education and infectious disease discourse in Australia. It combines live diagnostics, clinical protocols, and translational research, offering immediate applicability for clinicians, researchers, and public health professionals.
The Southern Cross Diagnostics (SCD) Travel Award is now open! This award aims to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in scientific research and to recognise talent in emerging, under-supported environments. The SCD Travel Award is designed to support post-doctoral researchers (early to mid-career) who are navigating financial barriers to attend the 2026 ASP Annual Conference in the Gold Coast. Award Details:
If you or someone in your network fits this criteria, we strongly encourage to apply. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in science is part of the vision for both the Australian Society for Parasitology and for Southern Cross Diagnostics and essential for the future of parasitology.
Application Deadline: 30 May 2026
Would you like to select to go into the lucky draw prize to Meet and Greet with a Dolphin at Sea World, during the ASP Conference Dinner on 2 July? Make sure you answer this question when you register for the 2026 ASP Conference. By selecting yes, you will have a chance to win this amazing prize. You must be registered to attend the whole ASP conference to enter the draw. The person who wins this lucky prize will need to wear a bathing suit and enter the water with the dolphins, being supervised by Sea World staff at the ASP Conference dinner in front of all of the delegates. You can only enter this lucky draw prize if you are registered to attend the whole conference before the Early-Bird deadline and then the draw will close and one lucky winner will be selected and informed about winning the prize. You can only enter the draw once. Good luck!
Bernard Lee Singleton designed the 2026 ASP Conference logo with scientific and cultural direction from Grace Reeves which features a tick lifecycle and cultural and ecological aspects of the Gold Coast to show the connection to the local environment, the land of the Kombumerri people.
Bernard Lee Singleton is an artist born in Cairns and raised in the small Aboriginal community of Coen, Cape York. Bernard’s mother was a Djabuguy woman born in Mona Mona mission and his father is an Umpila (east coast Cape York)/Yirrkandji man from Yarrabah mission.
In 2018 Bernard painted our extraordinary painting Gula Guri mayin which (which means “Heal the body”), explores themes of parasites and health. This artwork is hanging at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The 2026 ASP Conference Organising Committee recognises the importance of participation by indigenous researchers from around the world, people with disability, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, parasitologists of all ages and career stages and LGBQTI+ people. The committee is also committed to achieving gender equality at this event. We value the wealth of talent, creativity and discoveries achieved by women in the fields of tropical medicine and parasitology. We acknowledge that women continue to be underrepresented in the fields, particularly at senior levels, and in the diverse countries that constitute attendance at the congress. This goal of gender equality in our discipline is vitally important for two reasons. The first reason relates to the science we conduct. We recognise that women are under-represented at congresses, both in invitations to speak and in participation. Thus, the important contributions and discoveries made by a significant portion of our community remain under-recognised. Secondly, it is understood that career development in the sciences is driven, not only by publication output, but also by prestige measures, such as active and invited participation in scientific conferences. Equal representation at conferences is thus important for women to thrive and develop in their careers.
To support researchers with families there will be a parent’s room available for delegates to use during the conference. This will have the conference presentations live streamed into the room for parents/carers to watch with their children alongside them.
There will be a multi-faith prayer room available for delegates to use during the conference.
We want the 2026 ASP Annual Conference to be a safe, happy, and enjoyable conference for all, at the same time acknowledging that, unfortunately, discrimination and harassment can still occur at scientific events. Therefore, we will have a strict Code of Conduct to create a safe space for all our conference delegates and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind. There will be an ASP volunteer available at the conference to report any incidences of behaviour that is against this Code of Conduct. Please enquire at the Conference registration desk.
The 2026 ASP Annual Conference Committee aim to keep our impact on the environment as low as possible. We will minimise printing and use of plastics including name tags. The Conference abstract booklet will not be printed but, rather, will be available electronically to download; it will also be available on the Conference app and Conftool website. Food choices are selected to reduce food mileage and use local produce.