We are pleased to announce the upcoming Joint ISOP/ISEP Meeting in Cancun, MX from 31 May to 04 June 2020. Registration for the conference can be completed at: https://ccdeconference.usask.ca/index.aspx?cid=451

A Welcome Reception will take place on May 30th with paper and poster sessions continuing from May 31st to June 4th. In addition to three exciting Symposia, the Past-President’s Address, and the Seymour Hutner Lecture, the conference will focus on compelling research studies and challenging questions that are being addressed by researchers worldwide.

For this very special venue, it will be required that all participants stay at the Hotel Complex. The room reservation fee includes all food and beverages at multiple restaurants within the complex, along with meeting rooms, coffee, etc. The Conference Registration fee covers all other costs (Welcome Reception/Conference Program Packet/Audiovisual Charges, and other conference costs). To reduce costs for students, (undergraduate, Masters and PhD), arrangements are being made to have a subsidized double room rate for students and to collaborate in setting up room arrangements; details will follow.

The arrival airport is Cancun, Mexico. From there shuttle or taxi to the venue will be available. We suggest you book your flights early to arrive at Cancun airport and arrange transport to the Hotel. More details will follow.

Holz-Conner Travel Grant: Applications for the ISOP Holz-Conner Travel grant will be shortly announced for the meeting. Application forms and due dates will be posted on the ISOP website. If you plan to apply for this award you will need to be a member of ISOP and provide a draft title and abstract for your presentation/poster. See the ISOP website for details. To join ISOP, click here.

Hutner Award Lecture (2020)

The Seymour H. Hutner Young Investigator Award is given to honor outstanding contributions to the “cutting edge” of some area of protozoology and the prize winner delivers a special lecture at an annual meeting of the Society. At the 2020 ISOP/ISEP Meeting, Enrique Lara will provide the Hutner Lecture, “Species-Level Diversity in Protists: A Journey Into the Near-Imponderable.”

ISOP-Sponsored Symposia – ISOP/ISEP México 2020 Meeting

Symposium No. 1 Title: Advances in Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Sessilid Peritrichs

Organizers: Rosaura Mayén-Estrada, Weibo Song and Alan Warren

Speakers:

• Weibo Song, Institute of Evolution & Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao: Peritrichs in Freshwater Wetlands in China.
• Alan Warren, Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London,UK: Morphology, biology and systematics of sessilid peritrichs.
• Roberto Júnio Pedroso Dias, Department of Zoology, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil: New insights into the phylogeny of family Epistylididae (Ciliophora, Peritrichia, Sessilida).

Symposium No. 2 Title: Towards High-throughput Single-cell-omics Approaches in Protistology

Organizer: Jeremy Wideman

Speakers:

• Thomas A. Richards, University of Oxford, Oxford UK: Targeted genome sampling of marine microbial eukaryotes.
• Jason Kim, 10x Genomics, US: Single cell technologies and applications for protistologists.
• Virginia Howick, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK: High-throughput single-cell genomics of Plasmodium.
• Jeremy Wideman, Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, US: Towards high-throughput single-cell genomics of wild protists

Symposium No. 3 Title: Protist Symbioses

Organizers:  Filip Husník and Julius Lukeš

Speakers:

• Monika Bright, University of Vienna, Austria: Marriage and divorce in the giant ciliate – thiotrophic symbiont mutualism.
• Martina Schrallhammer, University of Freiburg, Germany: Intoxicating and infectious: endosymbionts of Paramecium.
• Daria Tashyreva, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic: Endosymbioses in Euglenozoan protists: from nutritional complementation to possible defense against pathogens.
• Margaret Mars Brisbin, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan: Maintenance and host control of Phaeocystis symbionts in Acantharian photosymbioses.