Dear members,

I would like to give you an update on a recent IS-MPMI Board of Directors (BODs) meeting, during which a number of society matters, including our next society congress MPMI2016, journal MPMI, and newsletter Interactions were discussed.

As you know, the biennial IS-MPMI Congresses bring us together to share exciting results, exchange new ideas and catch up with new and old friends. The next IS-MPMI congress will be held in Portland, Oregon, USA, on July 17-21, 2016. To ensure that the next Congresses delivers not only exciting science, but also high-quality services, the local organizing committee led by Brett Tyler at Oregon State University is working closely with our BOD members in the organization of this congress. In addition, a professional team at the IS-MPMI Headquarters is involved in handling the logistics for the congress.

I am happy to report that the organization process is going well and is on schedule. Current efforts are devoted to identifying plenary and concurrent session speakers who can highlight exciting developments in key areas of research that represents our society's broad membership. An important goal is to feature many new speakers (i.e., who did not speak in recent congresses) and to leave a substantial number of time slots for oral presentations to be selected from submitted abstracts. Another goal is to keep the cost as low as possible for student and postdoc attendees. Efforts are also being made to secure various funds to partially support the travel of potentially dozens of junior members to attend the congress. Please check the MPMI 2016 website for updates).

Our society journal MPMI has played a leading role in publishing the bulk of cutting-edge research on molecular aspects of plant-microbe interactions. I am sure that you are aware of many challenges in further elevating the status of MPMI in the publishing arena. There are a number of highly successful new journals that now publish many of our members' original research. In this sense, the high-profile research conducted by our members has contributed to the competitiveness of publishing. Facing these new challenges, the current Editor-in-Chief, Jane Glazebrook, and her team (senior editors and members of the editorial board) have implemented several innovative approaches (including Focus Issues) to improve both the attractiveness of MPMI and the rapid dissemination of accepted manuscripts via the "First Look" section. The next Focus Issue to be edited by John Carr and Steven Whitham will feature "Noncoding RNA-Mediated Regulation of Plant-Microbe Interactions," with a submission deadline of October 15, 2015. These Focus Issues are expected to be highly cited, giving authors maximum exposure. At the end of this year, Jane would have completed her 3-year term as the EIC. On behalf of our members, I would like to thank Jane and her editorial team for their dedication, creativity and time for maintaining a high standard of MPMI in publishing original MPMI research.

The BOD has selected John McDowell to succeed Jane as the EIC of MPMI. As many of you know, John is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science at Virginia Tech. He has been a member of the MPMI Editorial Board for 10 years. Most recently, he was a senior editor of MPMI. John has a long-standing research record in plant-pathogen interactions, particularly in the study of plant-oomycete interactions. He will lead a new editorial board, starting January 2016. We wish John and his team all the best in taking on this important responsibility and in further elevating the status of MPMI as a place to publish some of our society’s best original research and opinions.

With the creation of our society website and the conversion of our society newsletter to online format, Interactions, communication and networking in our community have become more dynamic and timely. For example, through Interactions I hope that you have become aware of efforts toward a new research initiative (“Phytobiomes Initiative”) in the United States that will likely impact many of our members. A draft Phytobiomes Roadmap is currently available for comment. If you have not commented, please do so as soon as you can. For a detailed perspective of this initiative by Jan Leach, please visit www.phytobiomes.org.

Soon, Interactions will also implement a member highlights piece and perspectives articles. The EIC of Interactions, Brad Day, has been working with IS-MPMI Headquarters to ensure the news source is regularly populated with new content. Keeping content fresh in this new format is critical. This will require active involvement of our members to contribute new stories and events. I encourage you to contact Brad if you have a research story or an academic event that will be of interest to our community.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank the IS-MPMI BOD for their work in the past year. These elected BOD members have volunteered their valuable time and ideas, beyond their demanding academic jobs, to advance various functions of our society. I also would like to thank the help of an excellent staff at the IS-MPMI Headquarters.

With best wishes,

Sheng Yang He

IS-MPMI President

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