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Brett Tyler
Chair, Local Scientific Committee
The 2016 IS-MPMI XVII Congress was held in Portland, Oregon, from Sunday, July 17, to Thursday, July 21, 2016. We are very pleased and privileged to have hosted one of the largest international congresses encompassing numerous dimensions of molecular plant-microbe interactions and are very grateful to the top world scientists who joined us in Portland.
Scientific highlights of the meeting included new emphases on the microbiome and systems biology, including an expanded focus on mutualism, together with continuing strong contributions in the areas of host resistance and pathogenic mechanisms.
For the XVII Congress, the final turnout was 950+ scientists from 40 countries worldwide. 70 young travel awardees from around the world participated in mentoring and discussions with top-level scientists and speakers throughout the meeting. Over a third of meeting attendees agreed that the highlight of the meeting was networking with other attendees. Many members appreciated the “excellent science,” the “diversity balance” of topics and speakers, the “great networking opportunity,” and the overall response to the meeting concluded that “this congress is the best meeting for researchers working on plant-microbe interactions.”
The scientific program started on Sunday, July 17. Over the week, there were 26 plenary session speakers—attendees were excited to hear from these new scientists as almost 75% of these speakers had not presented in the past two IS-MPMI Congresses. There were also 128 concurrent session speakers, and 31 special session speakers. About half of all speakers came from overseas, including about 34% from Europe and 18% from Asia. A total of 152 different labs were represented in the plenary and concurrent session talks. There were 722 posters displayed during three different poster sessions as well.
We thank all scientists from who attended the congress and who participated in this year’s scientific exchange. An additional thank you to the chairs of the plenary and concurrent sessions and the members of the Local Scientific Committee who helped pull together a fantastic meeting program. Finally, a special thank you to the conference staff for flawless support and logistics.
See you in Glasgow, Scotland in July 2019.
Brett Tyler
Chair, Local Scientific Committee |