Early-career diatomists meet in the International Phycological Congress in Poland

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Phycologists (researchers that study plant and algal biology) from all over the world came to present their up-to-date research in the the 11th International Phycological Congress (IPC) at Szczecin. Even though weather conditions were changing, the atmosphere at the congress was great. We started each day with superb plenary sessions about the communication leading to the reproductive system of diatoms and their silification mecanisms and the evolutionary imprint on the macromolecular composition of diatoms. Also on the programme were multiple invited symposia of variable themes, such as bioprospecting, diatom (or microalgal) biogeography, nomenclature, palaeontology and ecological metabarcoding. Finally, many excellent contributed symposia were given, the star of the show being Seminavis robusta with at least 4 talks.
There were many more talks on other microalgae, macroalgae and their ecologies, too.
From Young Diatomists we would like to wholeheartedly thank the organizers, Andrzej Witkowski and his fabulous team (pictures below) for coordinating the enormous quantity of assistants and for being so patient with all the queries and quibbles from the assistants. The conference also promoted connections between early career scientists that was a high energy and inspiring event for spurring Young Diatomists. See you in Chile in 2019!
@youngdiatomists




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