Melbourne, 23-30 July 2011
The International Botanical Congress will be held in Melbourne next year. As on previous occasions, the International Association of Bryologists’ (IAB) meeting will be held in conjunction with the IBC. A local organising committee for the IAB part of the conference, consisting of Paddy Dalton, Christine Cargill, Allan Fife, Pina Milne, Helen Jolley and Niels Klazenga was established about three years ago, shortly after the IAB conference in Kuala Lumpur. In the last year or so we have been busy strong-arming people into organising symposia, arranging the IAB dinner and other things.
The following symposia will be held at the IBC under the auspices of IAB:
- · Genomics and bioinformatics of bryophytes (Scott Schuette)
- · Hornworts: evolution, biology and biodiversity (Jeff Duckett, Chris Cargill)
- · Fine-scale phylogenetics and biogeography in mosses (Brent Mishler, Terry Hedderson)
- · The 'Bryophyte Tree of Life (BryoToL)': towards a bryophyte phylogeny group (BPG) (Dietmar Quandt, Alain Vanderpoorten, Sanna Huttunen)
- · Liverwort phylogeny and evolution: a window into early land plant diversification (Jon Shaw, Bernard Goffinet).
Unfortunately, a sixth symposium on ecology and conservation of bryophytes did not get over the line. Three more symposia that must have bryophyte papers were found on the list of accepted symposia.
- · Marchantia as a Model for Evolutionary and Developmental Biology
- · Developmental genetics and cell biology of Marchantia polymorpha
- · Fungal symbioses in cryptogamic land plants.
There should also be plenty of interest in the other 140 or so symposia.
The dead-line for submission of abstracts for papers is 7 November 2010 (not updated on IBC website yet, but from reliable source). Dead-line for poster presentations is 1 February 2011. Papers have to fit in one of the 150 symposia, posters in one of the seven main themes of the conference.
We have arranged for an IAB dinner on Thursday 28 July at University House, University of Melbourne, a short distance to the north of the conference venue. We are also trying to organise a mixer on the first day of the conference, but as yet do not know whether we can fit it in the already busy schedule of the conference and whether there is a space available.
One of us has been looking at IAB/IBC merchandise, so prepare to go home with junk you don’t need. We are actually trying to find something marginally useful and sustainable.
Preceding the conference will be the week-long nomenclature session where decisions will be made on proposals for amendments to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). We will have a Melbourne Code.
After the congress there will be several post-conference field trips. Some of the local organising committee members will be on selected field trips, so there will be some local bryophyte expertise.
We have heard some concerns about the steeply priced accommodation on the conference site. We have tried to do a group booking for bryologists, but the conference organisers did not cooperate. We are still looking for other options. In the mean time, there is plenty of accommodation available in Melbourne if you look a bit further than the IBC website. I would look in the Carlton/Parkville area, near Melbourne University, which is a nice neigbourhood with plenty of places to eat, or in the South Melbourne/South Yarra area, near the Royal Botanic Gardens. Both are reasonably close to the conference centre. Bear in mind though that the Australian dollar is extremely strong at the moment, so prices are bound to be high. The accommodation listed on the IBC website is cheaper than it was in Vienna six years ago, and so is the registration fee.
The congress will be held during the southern hemisphere winter, which in Melbourne can be anything from glorious to cold, wet and miserable. It being Melbourne, we’ll probably have a bit of everything.
We hope to see many of you in Melbourne next year. Feel free to contact our designated contact person, Helen Jolley (helen.jolley -at-
Niels Klazenga
National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Niels Klazenga
Programmer Information Technology, Biodiversity Information Officer
National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens
Birdwood Avenue
South Yarra, VIC 3141
Australia
Tel: (03) 9252 2346/369
Fax: (03) 9252 2444
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