by Tomáš Pánek
1. 2025 Election Results
Under the leadership of Euki Yazaki, the Nomination Committee invited ISOP members to express their interest in running for the President-Elect, Award committee chairperson, Trainee member, and three elected members of the Nominating committee (elected for 1, 2, and 3 years). Elections were conducted from June 11 to June 24, 2025, with 163 of 290 members participating (56%), and the results were as follows:
- President-Elect: Sonja Rückert, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
- Award committee chairperson (3 years): Javier del Campo, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC), Spain
- Trainee member (3 years): Elizabeth Weston, Dalhousie University, Canada
- Nominating committee: Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez, Purdue University, USA (3 years); Guifré Torruella, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC), Spain (2 years); Anastasiia Borodina, Okinawa Inst. of Science and Tech. in Evol., Japan (1 year).
2. Summary of 2025 Business Meeting
The meeting took place in Seoul, Korea, on June 26, 2025, from 12:00 to 12:40 PM (local time). A total of 50 ISOP members attended in person, with 2 participating online. A minute of silence was observed in memory of members who had passed away in the past 12 months, namely Eberhard H. Hegewald and Cornelius Lütz.
Following this, ISOP President Adl summarized the work and decisions of the Executive Committee (EC) over the past year. Executive Secretary Pánek introduced the Protistology Newsletter and outlined plans for a mentorship program for junior protistologists, to be organized as part of the Society’s next Scientific Meeting in Prague. He encouraged all members to share any ideas to improve these initiatives.
Executive Secretary Pánek also announced the election results (see above) and EC members appointed for the upcoming period: Micah Dunthorn (Natural History Museum and University of Oslo, Norway) as Programme Committee Chairperson and Tsvetan R. Bachvaroff (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, USA) as Historian.
Vice President Espinosa presented changes to the Bylaws, which had previously been approved by the Executive Committee as minor amendments to Article 1 (introducing joint membership). The membership ratified these changes unanimously. Two motions regarding membership fees followed:
Motion: To approve new individual membership fees (Adl/ Pánek – approved unanimously)
Regular Membership: Regular members include all members who do not choose or qualify for other categories of membership (incl. postdocs). Dues: 40 USD per year for all countries. Student Membership: Include all the privileges of Regular Membership. It is available exclusively to undergraduate and graduate students. Dues: 20 USD per year for all countries. Full Privileges Membership: Regular membership rights and subscription to the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. Dues: 80 USD per year for all countries. Lifetime Membership: Full Privileges Membership that lasts a member´s lifetime. Dues: 825 USD. Emeritus Membership: Available for regular members (15+ years) after retirement. Dues: one-half the Regular Membership dues, i.e. 20 USD per year for all countries. Honorary Membership: Full-Privileges Membership. Dues: 0 USD per year for all countries.
Motion: To establish a flat fee for each affiliate society (joint membership, 200 USD annually per society) (Adl/Pánek – approved unanimously)
3. Nominating Committee and 2026 ISOP elections
- The committee composition (2026)
Laura Eme, Chair (ex officio, 2025–2026); Gillian Gile (ex officio, 2025–2027); Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez (2025–2028); Guifré Torruella (2025–2027); Anastasiia Borodina (2025–2026).
- The committee’s responsibilities
The committee actively solicits expressions of interest from members interested in running for any open Society office (Article 3, By-Laws) or for appointed Executive Committee positions (Article 4, By-Laws). It shall advertise in advance (at least 2 months before the deadline for nominations) that it will accept self-nominations of members in good standing. When self-nominations are received, they will be added to the ballot, with the exception of those who were rejected by the majority vote of the Nominating Committee.
- Officials whose term is ending in 2026 (elected and appointed)
For the 2026 elections, the committee will solicit interest and actively search for candidates for the following elected positions: President-elect, Member-at-large, and Nominating Committee member. Elected officials shall not succeed themselves. Besides, the Nominating Committee will solicit interest also for two appointed positions, namely Executive Secretary and Membership Secretary. The terms of the Executive Secretary and Membership Secretary may be renewed with the agreement of the Executive Committee.
4. Programme Committee members appointed for 2025/2026 period
President Julius Lukeš approved members of the Programme Committee as proposed by Chairperson Micah Dunthorn: Julius Lukeš, Sonja Rückert, Anna Karnkowska, Tomáš Pánek, Gaytha Langlois, and Eunsoo Kim.
5. Call for symposium proposals is open till December 10th, 2025
The Protistology Open conference will be held 19–23 April 2026 in Prague, Czech Republic. ISOP will sponsor 2 symposia at this conference, each consisting of 3-6 speakers. 6,000 USD will be allocated per symposium. We encourage topics that address broad areas of research, rather than focusing on a particular taxon. Deadline for proposals: December 10, 2025. More information: https://protistologists.org/call-for-symposium-proposals/.
6. Application for Holtz-Conner travel awards is open till January 10th, 2026
Student members of the International Society of Protistologists (ISOP) are eligible to apply for the Holtz-Conner Travel Award. Awardees will receive up to USD 1,500 to cover travel expenses to the conference. ISOP has generously allocated USD 50,000 for this program. Application form is available here.
7. Grants-in-aid for ISOP affiliates
The budget (10,000 USD) remains unchanged despite several European societies joining the ISOP meeting in Prague. The evaluation and allocation of funds to grants-in-aid applications will maintain ISoP’s competitive standards. To qualify for ISoP’s Grants-In-Aid Program, affiliate societies must be joint members of ISoP and pay the $200 US joint membership payment per society. The deadline for proposal submission to ISOP Vice President is December 5, 2025, 5PM Eastern Standard Time, United States. Vice President Espinosa informed representatives of all affiliates by e-mail repeatedly.
8. APC charges for Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology increased
The Executive Committee agreed to adjust APC charges of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology as recommended by the Publisher (5% increase). New APC charges will be $3,240 USD. The publisher will start implementing new APCs in the week of November 24th, 2025.
9. Emergency action on membership fees due to Wiley’s inability to implement the new fee structure
Wiley cannot operate membership categories without access to the Journal and communicated their position extremely late to the EC, basing their decision on technical difficulties of separating membership dues from journal subscriptions. Wiley representatives also refused to remove other currency possibilities, but anyone can use USD to pay. To solve this issue, the ISOP Executive Committee decided to approve the updates to the membership categories to be posted in the Wiley system, as defined in the Bylaws, and to implement dues as approved by the ISOP Membership. Due to technical difficulties at Wiley, for 2026 all categories of membership will have access to the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. For more information, see Membership Updates from Gaytha Langlois, ISOP Membership Secretary.
